


Nebula.

by MysteriousMachination



Series: A Whole New Life [3]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Future Fic, Other, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-03-17 07:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 48,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13654740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteriousMachination/pseuds/MysteriousMachination
Summary: Third part of this series, now featuring Nebula Butterfly.





	1. My New Staff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you thought about the setup. Honestly, I have a lot of things to work on at the moment so I won't be constantly updating this like I did my previous works. But I still wanted to know if you all like how my ideas ended up for this story, or if there's something you don't like.

In the magical land of Mewni lived a princess, Nebula Butterfly. People call her a serious girl because she would barely speak while in public and royal parties. Always sporting a serious look on her face. In reality, the princess always felt at her best behind doors, away from the rest of the world. Indeed, so few ever got close enough to her to see her real self.

And this was a special day for Princess Nebula. For today is her 14th birthday and, according to tradition, she will receive the family heirloom from her mother, the magic wand. The whole court was ready for the event. The Queen and King were just waiting for their daughter to make her appearance. “She is late.” The King spoke up, they made the announcement a few minutes ago so the girl had no reason for being late.

The Queen placed her hand on his shoulder. “Relax, she’s probably getting ready.” Her husband’s stern look didn’t die down. “She was out since morning, at least let her take a shower.”

Letting out a small sigh, the King took a look at his wristwatch. “It’s always that with her…”

At last, the doors swung open and the princess made her way down the carpet wearing her casual clothing. A green hoodie along with a pair of black jeans, her long hair kept in a ponytail and sporting both her prescription glasses and the usual serious look on her face. The princess walked like this all the way to her parents. “Hey, guys.” She hadn’t seen them all day.

The Queen was all smiles and giggles at her appearance, but the King could only roll his eyes. “Nebula, you know how important this day is, you could have at least put on a pair of shoes.” The Queen looked down and noticed her kid was wearing only white socks.

The princess jumped a bit, maybe she was hoping nobody would notice but quickly shrugged it off. “I was with Mimi all day so I had to rush to the shower as soon as I got here and there was no time to get ready.”

After another short giggle. “Don’t worry, you were way more subtle than me anyway.” Her mother stepped forward and pulled the magic wand from her waist, presenting it to the princess. “Here it is, sweetie, I hope it takes good care of you.”

A little bit scared of the thing, the princess reached out for the wand. It didn’t feel that heavy now that it was in her hands. After running a finger across the crystal on front. “Is that it?” After she said that, the wand let out a strong, white glow. So intense that it blinded them all for a second. Once everything settled down, Nebula finally had her own magic wand. A different color scheme than that of her mother’s, light green in the handle and surrounding the crystal.

Even the design of the crystal was different, a white flower with four petals inside a dark green, crystal background. Following the circular base of the crystal was a pair of golden wings that envelop the whole thing. After some a quick inspection. “Hey, there’s a button in here.” At the back of the wand, on the base of the crystal. Nebula pressed it and the wand opened up from the middle of the handle, extending it until the wand stood taller than the princess. The extended handle was colored green, and the golden wings around the crystal grew longer. “Cool, a staff!”

She gave the staff a little spin, and then another one, she was just trying to get the handle of it. “It’s not a toy, Nebula. You will hurt yourself.” Her dad spoke up.

“Don’t worry, dad, it’s a piece of cake.” Nebula then threw the staff up in the air and stretched her arm forward and ready to catch it.

Only for her dad to reach out and stop the staff from landing on her head. “Listen, the wand is not a toy, you have to use it responsively.” He pressed the button to close it down and handed it back to his daughter. “Can you promise that?”

The princess looked down, feeling so dejected, and answered. “Yes, dad…” With that done. “What should I do now?”

“Have fun!” The Queen answered.

Only to receive a stern. “Star!” From the King.

She had a little chuckle and added. “In moderation of course. And don’t come back too late.”

“Alright then, thank you guys.” Nebula hugged both of her parents tight and said her goodbyes before running out of the court. And out of the castle for that matter. Nebula made her way down the town’s main street, eager to go back with her friend and show the new staff. But she quickly realized something amazing, why should she made her way there on foot when she could use the staff to take her there?

Nebula prepared her staff, extending the handle to plant it on the ground, and stood there. Not like she had a lot of spells memorized, she was going to use a little bit of improvisation here. So the Princess charged up her magic and shot exactly one powerful blast directly beneath her, to the ground she was standing on. The magic blast, colored mint green, threw her up in the air, so high she could see the town she just left and all the castle at the same time. Needing to come up with a follow-up and quick, the ground was approaching at high speed, Nebula began brainstorming. She was dead set on using her staff to get out of this predicament and that she was going to do. Realizing she needed to come with something better than a simple blast, Nebula finally had something prepared. 

“Bouncing Mushroom Pad!” From out of the ground, that she was about to land on, sprout a giant, blue cap mushroom. Nebula positioned herself upright and was able to hit the surface of the mushroom with her feet. Like a bouncing pad, the princess was launched into the air, just with more control this time. Venturing like this into the forest, creating more and more of these mushrooms as she made way, another obstacle crossed her path. Mainly the tall trees that littered the forest. She needed to be careful as to not hit those trees nor their branches. It took a while of bouncing around for the princess to finally arrive at her destination. Just one last problem she had to deal with, her landing. Thankfully, this one was easy, well, easier. Nebula shot another blast at the ground and created a huge sunflower, as tall as a tree. Her plan was to grab a hold of the flower and use it to pull herself to the ground. It wasn’t hard like a tree the flower will bend over her weight and led her safely to the ground. Half of her plan went alright, the princess was able to hold onto the flower by one of its petals, but her grip was lacking and her momentum so strong that her hand slipped at the last second.

In the end, Nebula landed bottom first through the roof of the nearby tree house, her destination. The inhabitant of this tree house welcomed her as soon as Nebula let out a pained lament. “Well, that was fast, how was the ceremony?” This tree house had certainly seen better days. It was completely built with several rooms for different purposes, be it either kitchen, store room, bedrooms, bathroom, and a small living room. Yet, thanks to the lack of care, some walls had been coming down, wood was beginning to rot, windows needed to be cover with cloth rags as there was no glass to cover them anymore. And now the roof had a new hole on it.

After Nebula got up and dusted herself off. “Hi, Mimi, got my new staff now.” She showed it to her friend.

The girl approached her and could see the magic staff in all its splendor. “Oh, cool!” While Nebula was wearing some casual attire from Earth, Mimi was wearing something a normal person from Mewni would. A one-piece dress made of skin and fur, no sleeves, and a fur cloak to cover her neck. Her shoes were made of the same fur and strapped with leather belts all around. Moving away from her attire, the girl was the same age as Nebula, with black hair settled on a pixie cut, and green eyes. “Everything went alright then?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Nebula sat down, with a sour expression all over her face. Not helped after she realized she was still wearing those white socks, now dirty with mud. “Not only was I late, I forgot to wear shoes. I never even noticed it before my dad point it out for all to hear.” She took the socks off and threw them to the side. “It was so embarrassing!” Nebula lied down on the floor and remembered how it all felt.

Mimi sat beside her. “C’mon, Nebula, they are just socks. I’m sure everybody thought it was funny. But, not funny as to say they’ll make fun of you…” So many times she had to deal with this and she still couldn’t find the right words. “You know what I mean.” The girls stayed like that for a few more minutes in silence until Mimi spoke up. “So, what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know…” Nebula lamented. “I can’t even work this thing.” She finally sat up. “My mom was already an expert the same day she got her wand and I can’t use it without almost killing myself.”

Mimi perked up and helped her friend up. “Then, let’s go! We have all day to make you an expert on your staff.” And she dragged her friend out of the house and down to the forest.

The girls arrived at a small clearance close to a stream. Both of them entered the stream, taking out shoes and rolling up their pants in accordance, the water reached just above their ankles. The change of scenery did help the princess ease up. Something about being in nature always had that effect on Nebula. She took a deep breath and said. “So, we are in the stream, what now?”

Her friend threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know. You’re the one with the magic wand.” Both girls giggled at that. “Why don’t you catch us something to eat? I know it was my turn this time, but it’ll be great practice for you!”

“Fine then…” Nebula saw some fish swimming in the water. This was the usual spot the girls use to catch their fish and they are always small and easy to catch.

After some seconds of pondering, Mimi spoke up. “What is it?” She noticed Nebula beginning to doubt herself, and that was never right.

“I-I’m trying to come up with something. But the only spells I can come up with are my mom’s.” The princess had seen her mother use the wand so effortlessly all her life, it was obvious that she’ll think of her in a moment like this. “B-But all the spells I can think of are for fighting… I-I don’t want to fight the fish, j-just catch them…” And on she went, speaking her worries.

But Mimi wasn’t about to let her friend fall into panic. “Nebula…” Getting no reaction, she proceeded to snap her fingers loudly to catch her attention. “Nebula!” She signaled the princess to breathe in and out, that should calm her nerves. “Look, I don’t know, well, anything about your magic, but maybe this isn’t how you should handle it. Don’t think about what your mom would do, just do what feels right.” The princess still looked uncertain. “Yeah, we don’t have nets nor buckets, but we do have your magic staff.”

Nebula took another look at the staff on her hands. So different from her mother’s wand. It stood to reason she should take Mimi’s advice and do things her way. She had already do it once before, that should prove she is ready for this. Thinking fast, the Princess shot some magic blasts at the ground around the stream, making three extra-large flower buds sprout from it. “Give them some time.” Right after she said that the flower’s roots came out of the ground and they stood upright. The flowers would walk into the stream and catch the fish by closing around them and keeping them inside their petals. It helped that the flowers were as big as a basketball and the fish small and slow. One bizarre thing happened where one of the flowers sprout fangs from inside its petals and began actually eating the fish, but Nebula put a stop to that quick enough, realizing she still needed more practice. In the end, the girls had two flowers full of dinner.

Their day went up like that for the rest of the afternoon. With Mimi coming up with a problem around their tree house or the forest and Nebula fixing it using her magic. Be it creating a bonfire to cook their meals, build a shelter from scratch, repair the hole Nebula made on the roof, and many more. All things they usually have to do while staying out there in the woods. Yes, it was never right the first time she tried any of those things, or the fifth time either, but Nebula was at least trying and working hard. Once all of that was over, dawn fell upon them quickly enough. “I have to call it a night. See you tomorrow, Mimi.” Nebula said her goodbyes.

The girls hugged. “Rest well, tomorrow is going to be more magic practice for you.” She was already used to spend the night alone. And her friend always came back, that much was sure.

This time, the Princess went back the usual way, with her own two feet. She arrived back at the castle normally and was met by her father. “Nebula, you’re dragging mud all over the carpets.” The first thing he said to her. Nebula had totally forgotten she was walking barefooted. “Go take a bath and get ready for bed.” Her dad excused her and the Princess walked to her room with her head down.

It was after her bath that she received a visit from her mother. “Hey, just coming to check on you.” The Queen entered, without knocking, and found her daughter struggling with something while sitting in front of the mirror. The next thing she noticed was Nebula’s hair, it was a mess, to put it simply. “Need help with that?” She was already making her way inside anyway.

While her mother was taking all of the clips and hairbands out, she really did a number on her own hair, Nebula explained herself. “I was trying to fix my hair with magic, you know, like you do all the time.” The Princess already decided against it after her last attempt made the hairbrush wrapped itself in her hair. Leaving the staff holstered on top of the table.

Hearing that, the Queen stopped and handed the wand back to her daughter. “Well, I can give you some pointers.” One quick lesson later, and some failed attempts, Nebula was able to fix her hair like she wanted it. “How was your first day with magic?” Better than this she hoped.

“Uneventful, I practiced all day in the forest. That was fun.” It quickly hit her that all her practice was in survival tactics and none in actual day to day activities, maybe that’s why she had so much trouble with her hair.

The Queen stayed with Nebula for a while longer, she didn’t need an excuse to talk with her daughter. “Must have been a lot of work, you even missed dinner, again.” Nebula leaned on her after she said that and the Queen took this as an apology. “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just, you barely hang out in the castle anymore. You girls can have as much fun here as in the woods.” Didn’t help that this was growing more common with the princess. But at least she was safe there and wasn’t skipping her meals.

“I know, but, mom, I don’t really like spending time here… At least the outside air if good for me…” The woods were basically her backyard, and the tree house was less than a few minutes’ walk away. “Mom, what do I do now?” She separated from her mother and continued. “I mean, now that I have my magic staff and all. What now?”

Her mother was quick to answer. “What do you want to do?” It all boiled down to that. “I could help you get more familiar with your magic wand if you want.” Just one idea she wanted to throw out.

“I, uhm… I-I will love for you to help me with my magic…” Nebula looked down, worried about what she was about to say. “Mom…” It was so difficult to speak her mind. “… I don’t think…”

But before she could say anything, some servants came looking for her mother, taking Nebula by surprise. With this issue needing to be dealt with, the Queen spoke to her daughter before having to step out. “Tell me, what do you want to say?” And she threw a smile at the Princess, this was obviously important for her.

“N-Nothing doesn’t matter anyway…” But Nebula was looking down while she walked away to her bed and didn’t see her mom’s smile fading before she stepped out, worried about the girl.

That was Nebula’s first day with magic. Not good nor bad, just, uneventful. So little differ from her usual day before getting her magic staff. The next following days were pretty much the same. Nebula would get up and have breakfast with her parents. Even though her mother said she would help with the magic training, something always came up that ate all of the Queen’s time, and that of her dad for that matter. It didn’t matter to her anymore, it gave Nebula enough free time to spend with Mimi in the tree house. The girls would come up with something for the Princess to use her magic, and Nebula would spend a good portion of her time trying before getting it right, or until nothing too bad happened. They'll have lunch and spend more time together, the woods always had something interesting to offer them, be it some new place to wander or animals to play with. More than a few times, Nebula would miss dinner with her family and go back home way later than she was told to. Her dad would find something to scold her about, never yelling nor getting angry at her, just a small call out to her behavior. And her mom would have a small talk with her, usually asking how her day was, and promising to spend more time with her.

Day after day, this routine repeated itself, there were some variations here and there, but it always followed the majority of those bullet points. It was a week and some days later that her mother approached her after breakfast, just as Nebula was getting ready to head out to the tree house once again. “Sweetie!”

That sure caught Nebula’s attention. “Oh, hey, what’s up?”

“Well, I have all morning free, wanna go practice magic with me?” The Queen has been wanting to do this for a long while.

And there was nothing wrong with that. “Sure, I have been having trouble with some of the things.” The two of them retreated to the studio.

Once they arrived. “Show me your spells! I want to see what you have come up with.” The Queen couldn’t contain her excitement.

Nebula gave it a quick thought and went down to the task. The Princess would make mushrooms sprout with magic, followed by huge plant stems from underneath the ground, and the Princess would use the plant to climb all the way to the ceiling. She could reach into the wand and pull out a lasso made out of green vines to swing around or use the vines as robes. And, one of her favorites, Nebula could make flowers bloom with ease. All of the following spells were much on the same line of tools or shortcuts for her problems. Her mom was amazed at the display, but she still had one question. “Those are awesome spells, sweetie. But, what about your combat spells?”

“…What?” That took Nebula by surprise. “Mom, I-I don’t have combat spells.”

“Whaaaaaaat? How can you not have combat spells.” It sounded so ridiculous to her. “Don’t you have like a punching mushroom blast? Or, some kind of cake explosion?” Nebula looked lost of words. “What about your vine lasso? Put some thorns on that thing and you can use it as a whip.” Just brainstorming some ideas.

Nothing much the Princess could say to that, so she decided to go with the flow. “Uhm… I guess so…” Nebula looked at her staff once more and gave it a try. She reached into it like before but pinched herself with her own whip. Alright, that wasn’t going to work. Nebula needed to do something to salvage the situation. “Rainbow Roses Blast!” The princess held her staff up and a rain of roses shot out of it. The roses came in all kinds of colors, but they didn’t do much damage like she intended to. They all pretty much rain over her mother harmlessly. After that failed attempt, her mother looked pensive. “I can do better!”

The Queen was quick to try and calm her daughter down. “No, it’s not that, don’t worry.” She went back to brainstorming. “I was just thinking about getting you a tutor for this.”

Nebula knew almost instantly who she was talking about. “You mean Glossarick? Isn’t he…”

“It doesn’t matter now.” She needed to explain something. “Look, you may not think this is much, but I’ll feel better if you could take care of yourself in a fight.” Nebula looked rather down after she said that. “But it’s just for prevention, you know? In case something does happen.” Her words seemed to only scare the girl. Something she should be trying to avoid here. “But, like I said, don’t worry about it now. Show me more spells, I want to see everything you can come up with.” Certainty a task that would keep them entertained for a while.

And it sure lifted Nebula’s mood. “Sure! Just let me tell Mimi that I won’t be going today.” The Princess did this with her pocket mirror. The rest of their day went away in that studio, with Nebula getting some help from her mother and having a good time practicing her magic. In the end, Nebula did felt all of this was helpful, her mother was a great tutor, and it helped that she was a good student. With the day turning into night fairly quick, mother and daughter retreated to their respective bedrooms.

The Queen was the last one to finally sit down on her own bed after the whole day and let out a big sigh as she took her shoes off. “Long day?” The King asked, putting down his laptop, and the work he was doing.

“I was busy all day teaching magic to Nebula.” She lied down and covered herself with the blankets. “We even ate at the studio.”

“Yeah, I noticed your absence and all. How is she doing?” He finally put the laptop aside to focus on their conversation.

The Queen looked rather worried at that question. “She is making process, but I don’t get it sometimes. I never had a hard time using my magic wand. Why is it so hard for her?”

“Relax, maybe it’s just different from princess to princess.” He threw an arm around his wife and continued. “C’mon, it can’t be that bad.”

“Well, you’re right.” She spent all day watching Nebula work her magic, it was easy to tell where her strengths lay. “…Marco.” There was something that was bothering her for quite a long while. “How do you see Nebula?”

“What do you mean?” It was such a weird question to ask so out of nowhere. So he had to scrap something together there. “I don’t think we need to send her to school, she’s proven quite good with her home tutors in the past. Maybe she is spending too much time out in the tree house, but that’s to be expected, she doesn’t really have any friends aside from Mimi.”

“No, well, yes!” That was and wasn’t what she was talking about. “She is so reserved, I don’t think school will help much in that, but I believe she could use some more friends.”

Not totally sold on the idea. “Are you sure she even needs our help for this?” Not like either of them ever had this kind of problem before.

“Just a little push. It’s either here in the castle or the tree house in the forest for her. I’m even inclined to get her a pair of scissors so she can visit some other places.” Maybe meet other people while she is at it, and with supervision from the two of them. “Won’t it be cool if she were to get a crush?” That didn’t sit too well with her husband, his sour face brought a smile to her face nonetheless. “Maybe the scissors aren’t a good start, but there has to be something we can do.”

After some pondering and brainstorming ideas. “We will come up with something, don’t worry about it.” Or more like, she will come up with something. “I still think it’s not that big of a deal, Nebula will grow out of it at her own pace.” But that last part wasn’t heard by his wife, he could tell. Not like that thought has never crossed his mind, maybe a little push is better than doing nothing after all. “Anyway, goodnight, Star.” And he went to sleep after that.

Some more time passed and routine kept as usual. Nebula had to work hard on her magic, trying to perfect it with every passing day. Her spells got better at a slow pace and she was able to find a way to cast spells that suited her personality. But when Nebula got better in one kind of spell, it seemed she grew worse at the rest. In other words, she needed a lot of practice to keep her magic work in check. She also put some extra energy in coming up with new spells, like her mother suggested. And magic sure made her life in the forest quite easy, and for her friend too for that matter.

The girls were already done with her tasks around the forest for the day and were mostly sitting around the tree house flipping through their stash of comic books. “So, what is it Nebula? Have you spoken with your parents yet?”

Mimi’s question made Nebula jump on her seat. “It’s not that easy, you know!? I’m thinking about perfecting my magic before I bring the topic up with them.” Especially after that talk she had with her mother the other day. “If I’m going to move out of the castle, I need to be able to fend for myself in the wild.”

Her friend sputtered before answering. “We have been wandering around this same forest for years now. There’s nothing I can’t wrestle into submission. And everything else we already mastered.” That was the reason they have been practicing magic in the woods. 

“That’s the point, I don’t want to just survive out here, but to actually be able to live in peace. Like you.” No matter how much time Nebula spent in the woods, she always felt like a guest and not a true dweller of the forest.

“Well, I’ve been here since I was a little kid, and you already know everything I know about living in the forest, and more. Add your wand on top of that and we can’t fail.” This wasn’t something they wanted to do on a whim. The girls had a real plan about what to do and how to do it. It seemed the only thing that was stopping Nebula from actually going through with this was the Princess’ lack of courage to bring this up to her family.

Just after Mimi finished stating her point, a part of the roof fell down on the other side of the room. “Don’t think my parents would be ok with me living here anyway.” The tree house was a whole other set of problems that needed to be dealt with.

Mimi saw the piece of roof on the ground and thought. “Why don’t you fix it?” Nebula looked confused at that. “With your wand, I mean.”

The princess looked worried. “I don’t know… I’m not that good fixing things.” Creating things out of nowhere and animating came easier. Manipulating objects not so much. “But I’ll give it a try.” She extended her staff and prepared herself. Shooting a blast at the roof didn’t work like intended, it only made the hole bigger. Nebula flinched after that. “Ups, sorry.” After taking a deep breath, Nebula tried lifting up the piece of roof that fell down first and trying to cover the hole with it. But before she could come up with something to weld the pieces together, that piece of wooden roof began sprouting branches and several leaves. Like all that wood was alive out of the sudden. This surprise caused the Princess to drop the piece of roof, scared.

That display sure ticked Mimi up. “Stop fearing your own wand, Nebula!”

“I’m not…” But Nebula was cut off there.

“Yes, you are!” Mimi exclaimed loudly. “I don’t know why but that magic wand scares you.” It could be messing up during one of her spells, maybe it was the whole deal with using magic, or something else entirely, but something was messing up with Nebula and her spell work. Now calmed down, Mimi was able to speak her point better. “You can’t go on like this, you should…” Something caught the girl’s attention right there, it was the sound of howling coming from outside. “That pack of wolves came back for more!” Mimi ran to the other room and came back wielding a wooden club. “I need to take care of this, see you tomorrow, and lose that fear for your magic wand.” And before her friend could say anything, the girl was already making her way down and into the forest.

This left Nebula all alone and only able to say. “It’s a staff.” Pretty much all she could answer. Feeling defeated, and quite sad, Nebula when back to the castle. She was ready to head directly to her room before being stopped by her mother on the way there. “What’s up?”

Her mother was holding something on her back and was sporting a smile on her face. “Nothing much. Say, how would you like having a ball dedicated to you?”

That sounded like a terrible idea for Nebula. Just the mention of something like this gave her anxiety. “W-Well… I mean… I-It’s s-sounds like it could be l-lovely… b-but…”

The Queen lighten up at that. “I know, right?!” She finally showed her daughter what she was holding on her back. It was an invitation to said ball. “I have been thinking about this all week. Do you like it?”

Nebula had to force a smile while reading the invitation. “S-Sure, mom…” And her heart sunk when she saw the date. “N-Next weekend? So soon!”

“Of course, silly. The sooner the better. It will be like any other party you have been, only difference is that you’ll be the main show!” This thing was sounding worse with any passing word. “It will be food, drinks, dancing, but at the end of the night, you will show us some of your magic to amaze us all.”

The princess still had one question. “Who will be there?”

Her mother went through her list of guest. “Your great-uncles and aunts from Mewni.” So the Butterfly and Johansen. “Some families from the neighboring kingdoms.” Those were harder to nail down. “I told them to bring their kids too but feel free to invite Mimi and the rest of your friends too.” Just Mimi then. “I’ll even separate some invitations for you.”

Still trying to maintain that smile, Nebula answered. “Sure, mom. I-I think I should be going then…” She began retreating from that hallway. “Gotta work on that magic show!” And she made a run for it, her mother yelling something at her that she didn’t catch. Probably wishing her a good night. Nebula pretty much slammed her door close as she entered and began having a little panic attack. No way she could do any of that, she didn’t even like royal parties, less having one dedicated just to her. What about her magic? The only thing she could do right was making flowers bloom. No way that could entertain a room full of judgmental royals. Her nerves kept shooting all night and the morning after.

The only thing she could do was consult with her dear friend. It was the first thing she did, like any other day, ran to Mimi. But even inside their tree house Nebula had problems calming down. The Princess would pace back and forwards while mumbling her worries way too soft for Mimi to hear. “Alright!” She had enough of that, and it always proved useful for calming Nebula down. “Now, tell me what happened.”

Nebula pulled the invitation from her pocket and showed it to her friend. “My mom is making me show my magic in front of a ball full of people!” Well, nobody was making her do anything, it just came out that way. After thinking her next words through. “I can’t even make a spell without something going wrong!”

Mimi read through the invitation, more like skimmed it, and answered. “Well, don’t go, simple as that.” And she went back to sorting her weaponry.

But Nebula didn’t take that answer. “I can’t do that! M-My mom would be sad, she is making all of this for me.”

The girl turned back and thought for some seconds. “Mmmmm… Work on your magic and ace that night.” Back to the weapons racks for her.

Done with her friend’s attitude. “Mimi, concentrate!”

Mimi sighed loudly and turned around. “What do you want me to say? I don’t like parties, I don’t have parents, I can’t use magic, and the wolves took some of our territory yesterday. Listen, I know how hard things can get sometimes, and it gets worse for you begin a magical princess. But when the wolves come barging in like they own the place, you need to be ready and face them.” With a serious look on her face and hope in her eyes, Mimi grabbed Nebula by the shoulders and said. “Nebula, you need to face them now or you’ll live in fear for the rest of your life.”

Nebula took some time, thinking about all Mimi said and weighing her options. Before finally speaking up. “Y-Yes! You’re right, I can’t keep running away from my problems like this. I should go and face them!”

Delighted at her friend’s response. “That’s right, now…” Mimi took something from the weapons rack and handed it to Nebula. “Take this shield, you should be able to make do with your wand. And for me…” She took two wooden clubs this time. “Let’s go, we are getting our part of the forest back.” It was easy to notice Nebula’s confused face. “You said you were going to face the wolves, right?”

Now shrinking in fear. “I-I-I thought they were metaphorical wolves! I don’t even know how to fight, and what about the ball?!”

Mimi was already looking through the window to scout the area. “Think of this as practice then. Coming up with spells in the middle of battle should help you. C’mon!” She grabbed Nebula by the wrist and they headed out to the woods. “We still have time to practice for the ball. You’ll ace that show, believe me.” And off they went. Luckily, they didn’t see many battles that day. And Mimi did start helping Nebula the following days With so little time though, there was just so much they could prepare the princess for her night.

The night of the ball came fast for Nebula, too fast for her nervous self. Nonetheless, all that practice and hard work gave her some confidence. Both girls were in the castle early so they could get ready for the party. The servants bathed Mimi, scrubbing all the dirt away intensively, and choose a dress for her to use. Nebula was more familiar with all of this and didn’t need much assistance getting ready. Her mother still helped her with her hair. “You look beautiful, sweetie.”

Nebula had to be honest, she looked great in that ball dress, it was even dark green, her favorite color. Her mother fixed her long hair in the normal beehive style and a tiara to go with it. “Now this…” The Queen took Nebula’s glasses off.

“Mom, you know I…”

“I know, honey, but you look so good with contacts!” Excited, she handed the container to the Princess. Contacts didn’t felt that comfortable for Nebula, other than that, they work fine, even better than her regular glasses. Nebula took a quick look at herself in the mirror, ignoring her mother’s huge smile, she looked like a real princess, and that was something so rare for her it made her smile. “I knew you would love it!”

Once the chuckles died down. “Are the guest already here?”

“They’ll arrive in a few minutes. You know how it goes, they’ll be calling the guests’ names one by one as they enter. After your dad and I make our introduction, it’ll be your turn.” She was the main guest after all.

Nebula took a deep breath and let it out, inhale and exhale. “Alright, what about Mimi?”

“She will go before us.” It took some seconds for the Queen to realize that wasn’t what she was asking. “Oh, she is in the next room, should be having her hair done by now.”

The Princess stood up from her seat. “You know she only likes me doing that.” And off she went to see her friend, with her mother following behind. Once they entered Mimi’s room, they found the wild girl struggling with two servants over touching her head. Nebula made a swift beeline towards her friend and calmed her down. “Hey, sorry about the wait, I was getting ready myself.” The Queen excused both servants away and stay to help the girls with the finishing touches. Having such short hair, Mimi didn’t need much done to be ready. Some fancy clips and earing to pretty her up. “How do you feel about the night, nervous?”

Mimi brushed that away. “Nah, I’m dying to tackle that banquet food, though. Didn’t eat all day just for this.” Both girls chuckled and Nebula was done with her friend’s hair. “Great, now we are ready for the show.” The girl looked at her friend again and noticed that her smile had turned upside down. “C’mon! You practiced days for this, you’re going to amaze that court!”

The Princess, with some doubts still roaming inside her head, tried keeping a positive attitude like Mimi. Suddenly, she felt her hands being held and the pair of friends locked eyes. Nebula received a smile from Mimi, a small one to drive her point home. All of the sudden, both girls heard laughter coming from Nebula’s mother. “Sorry, I just thought you girls looked cute there.” Nebula may not have a lot of friends, but those girls sure are great to one another. The trumpets sounded right there. “Let’s go, girls, don’t want to be late.”

Now behind curtains, Nebula had to wait to make her appearance. After some names being called. “Presenting, Minthe Diaz!” She could hear her friend being called. Some minutes later. “Presenting, The Queen and King, Star and Marco Butterfly!” Once that was done, Nebula took another deep breath, she did that for a couple of times in place, her name was going to be called soon and she needed to be ready for it. She proceeded to the stairs once she was calm enough. “Presenting, The Princess, Nebula Butterfly!” Some applause could be heard as Nebula got blinded by the spotlight and the band began playing. The Princess made the slow walk down the stairs and waving as she moved along. The only problem was her expression, her natural, serious looking expression. It was something she did without trying, every time she felt nervous or in a crowd of people, more than often those two go together, the Princess will keep a serious gaze. Didn’t help that she spoke so little too, people tend to mistake all of that for anger, or annoyance, from time to time.

Nebula found Mimi quick enough and walked towards her. The wild girl was busy serving herself some food, the servants gave portions too small for her liking, and hugged Nebula as she noticed her. “That went well, the night is up to a good start.” She took a huge bite out of her roast and continued. “Want some? It’s amazing.” Food was one of the only things Mimi liked about being invited to royal parties.

“No, and listen, I need to say hello to all the guest, so…”

“We won’t be glued together like always…” After another quick bite of her food. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be chatting up with your family.” She signaled to the other side of the banquet table, where the Johansen were eating their fill as well. And that was Nebula’s first stop. Her family already knew Mimi so she only had to make a small introduction and said hello before excusing herself off.

After saying hello to that side of the family, she moved to the Butterfly side, words were short there and that was it for family. Neither set of grandparents made their appearance at the ball, which saddened the Princess to no end, but she could see them any other time so she didn’t hold that up much longer. Then came the rest of the royals that were invited. Some Kings and Queens here and there, along with their sons and daughters too, but Nebula paid little attention to them, or more like, they didn’t give her much attention. The royal kids would speak to one another like friends, often forming circles of chatter, and Nebula was too afraid to actually speak up and start a conversation herself. And her face didn’t help her much, they weren’t scared of her, but the teenagers didn’t like to talk with someone that seemed angry from the beginning.

Now confident that she said hello to every guest, Nebula was ready to go back with Mimi and wait for the main show. That was until she found someone she apparently missed while walking around. It was a lone boy, about her age, wearing a white suit, and supporting the wall while he drank some of the punch. Being another of her guests, Nebula made the short walk towards him and presented herself. “Hi, I’m Nebula.”

The boy in question was a little taller than her, just a couple of inches, with bright orange hair and amber eyes. He was caught off guard by the Princess approaching him out of the corner of his eye and needed some seconds to shook the surprise off. “H-Hi! I’m ArmMetal, I mean! I’m Metalarm!” He shook the Princess’ arm.

“Metalarm, that’s an interesting name.”

It quickly dawned on the boy the mistake he made. “Sorry, I’m Aron, my family’s name is Metalarm.” Now that the embarrassment was over the two of them could have a real conversation. Except that neither of them spoke up, the teenagers stood in place looking at their feet, not knowing what to say. “H-Hey, I, uhm, like your… marks.”

Nebula reacted by running her fingers over her cheeks. “Thanks, I know they look weird, though.”

“They don’t trust me. Blue is kind of my favorite color.”

Even if that brought a light smile to Nebula’s face, covered by her looking at the floor, the girl still found it hard to keep conversation. “What about your name? Do you really have a…” The boy turned to his side and Nebula was able to see his left arm. His arm was fully mechanic from the fingers to the shoulder, the Prince wore no sleeve on that side to show it off. The thing seemed completely sealed off by chassis to hide the mechanism that kept it moving, and a shield of arms painted on the shoulder to prove it came from his kingdom. The whole piece seemed so alien to the Princess that she had only one response. “Cool!”

With that, the Princess grabbed the mechanic hand and began playing with the fingers. “It’s family tradition when we get to certain age. My dad and I design it together.”

Moving up from the fingers. “Can you feel anything?” And she began touching his forearm.

“No, it’s not that sophisticated. It does give me super strength, though.” Too bad he had nothing to show it off.

Nebula’s curiosity peaked after that last comment. “What else can it do?”

Aron opened up his wrist. “It has a digital clock and a built-in compass.” Next, he took a step back and showed Nebula his elbow and out popped a sword. “A blade in the elbow.” Sheeting his blade and extended his arm. “I can also shoot out my fist, and it’s connected by a wire so I don’t have to go pick it up.”

All of that sounded amazing to the Princess, she was smiling from ear to ear by now, and couldn’t take her eyes away from the arm. “You must get in a lot of fights with that arm.”

And the Prince defeated with that comment, like that confidence boost he got left his body in a second. “Uhm… No, I-I… I mean…” He should have waited for something like this, knowing Nebula’s family story. “I do know how to fight… I just… Haven’t…”

“You haven’t tried it out, doesn’t matter, really. You’re way better off than me.” Nebula pulled out her staff and stretched it in front of the boy. “I can’t really work my staff perfectly yet. The spells get all screwed up from time to time.”

The Prince took a closer look at the crystal, it gave such a beautiful glow and said. “Well, I can’t say my arm is perfect, or that I’m an expert using it. At least your magic can do everything.” All the things he has heard about the Butterfly family’s magic wand told him this. Yet, he never had the chance to witness it himself before. Truly, he was thrilled about watching Nebula’s magic in action.

Nebula smiled at his words again, now really looking at the boy in the eyes, and suddenly remembered something. “Where are your parents? I should say hello to them as well.”

The boy scratched the back of his head and answered. “They aren’t here. Actually, I came alone tonight.” Well, he and his royal escort of guards. “Didn’t want my family to be the only one missing.” At least one member of the royal family making appearance was enough, and he really wanted to see the magic show. “I’m the youngest of four siblings, do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“Nah, I’m an only child. Can’t say I’m missing much of the experience though.” Nebula looked back and saw Mimi talking with her family by the table. “Are you a long way from home?” And the teenagers continued like that for a while longer. Actually holding up a conversation and getting to know each other. They would lean on that wall and chat up about Nebula’s magic, Aron’s knowledge about cybernetics, whatever. That previous shyness and uncomfortable atmosphere were slowly fading away.

That sight caught the attention of The Queen and she hit her husband with her elbow. “Is something wrong?”

“Look at that.” Both parents saw their daughter having a lively chat with another person her age. “It’s really working!”

The King rolled his eyes and then smiled at both his wife’s cheerfulness and Nebula smiling. “Maybe you shouldn’t get your hopes up so quick, Star. They know each other for less than an hour.”

“Hey, we knew it each other for less than a day before becoming friends. We Butterfly have a charming personality.”

Some minutes later, the trumpets began playing, and Nebula had to excuse herself. All lights toned down and the spotlight shined on the center of the room. The Princess stood forward, with that serious look on her face, and a couple of servants brought a medium size plant pot filled with soil. Nebula prepared her staff, standing it straight on the ground facing towards the pot, and took a deep breath. She gathered energy on the tip of her staff and shot a small beam of light into the soil, then, the music started playing. A light tune that synched with the Princess’ hand movements. First, she swayed the staff in circles, with a blue light shining on the tip, and did some light chanting. From the soil sprout a small stem with a flower bulb on top. As the tune of the music moved on, the flower began growing taller, and taller, bigger too. The flower got so big it almost reached the candelabra in the ceiling, and its stem grew extra vines all around. Still, the bulb remained closed.

That quickly changed when Nebula lifted her staff and hit the end of it against the floor. With that, the flower bulb sprouted open, revealing a beautiful red rose, with hundreds of petals showing inside. After the audience stopped awing at the spectacle, Nebula moved on with the show. She used her magic to make the extra vines sprout more roses. In the middle of all that, the main rose rumbled a little bit, but Nebula brushed it off as nothing. The next thing she needed to do was make the flower move around with the rhythm of the music. Doing just that, the whole flower would twist around inside its pot a couple of times, dancing just as Nebula intended to.

That was, until the plant began grumbling faster, and with more intensity. That did make Nebula panic. “No, girl, C'mon, you can do it.” The Princess mumbled to herself, and the flower. She tried calming it down with magic, to get it to stop. Once it seemed the thing was stopping. “Yeah, keep it together.” But the flower had other ideas. The potted plant began grumbling in place harder than ever before and it quickly grew spikes all around it. “Oh no.” Nebula could only cower back and watch as the flower she created shed all of its red petals and create something akin to a mouth full of sharp fangs. The little flowers that littered its vines did the same, and all of them together screech loudly.

Mimi was looking at all that and was quick to react. “Oooooh, that’s not good.” Mimi downed her food and took the meat fork and butcher knife from the servant with the roast. “I’m taking these with me.” She also removed her high heels. “And taking these off.” With that done, the girl jumped on top of the table and used it to impulse herself towards the giant flower. With a battle cry and a fierce look, Mimi was quick to latch onto the enemy, trying to take it down.

With all the chaos that rose was creating, whipping its vines all around, messing up the whole place, and catching some of the guest and servants with its free vines. Nebula still tried to calm the flower with magic but nothing was working, that thing seemed too strong or stubborn to listen to the Princess. Didn’t help that Nebula began panicking at the sight, her own magic went out of control and started attacking people, it would shake everyone to the core, especially with her unable to fix what she had done.

In between those vines whipping everything around, one of them took a swing at Nebula, and the Princess was too scared to dodge it. It was a sudden pull that moved her out of the way. Nebula opened up her eyes and saw herself being caught by Aron, he had used his stretching arm to pull Nebula out of the way. “Thanks.” It at least gave the Princess a breather for a few seconds. And things turned to the worse when the flower managed to pick up Mimi from its back and ate her whole. “Mimi!” Nebula prepared her staff and magic to strike back.

Only for the flower to take another whip at the Princess. And again, Aron moved to the offensive and cut the vine midair. “It got you cover.” With that flank secured, Nebula was able to take aim and shoot her magic at the base of the stem. Efficiently cutting the flower from its soil and tumbling it over. Not done with just being cut from its source of nutrients, the flower puked a large quantity of green goo from all of its mouths. Not only did the green puke covered the hall from ceiling to carpets, but the guests and furniture as well. It did puke Mimi out intact and the guests it captured ended up being alright, so that was the only upside.

Once all of that was over, everything went quiet in that room. There was no guest that wasn’t covered by the flower’s puke. All the embarrassment hit Nebula hard, she screwed up big time and everybody witnessed it. The Princess could only clean her face and look down with a sad expression on her face, she even had to try hard to keep the tears inside. In between all that silence, Nebula managed to mumble. “I’m sorry.” And she ran away, out of the hall, and out of sight. Mimi rose up from the pool of puke she was in the nick of time to see her friend’s exit, following after the Princess at a quick pace.

Without a direction to run away to, Nebula mostly ran in the castle’s hallways with tears running down her eyes. It was easy for Mimi to follow the Princess, she was leaving a green trail behind her after all, and she sure could run faster than Nebula. Mimi got in the Princess’ way to stop her and try to calm her down. “Hey! Where are you going? You can’t run away from your own ball.” She grabbed a hold of her hand to both keep her from going away and calm her nerves.

“I’m a screw-up, Mimi, even with all my hard work.” They had all that week to practice and still messed up her show. Nebula pretty much betrayed their joint effort in her mind.

Now hugging her friend tight. “N-No… Don’t worry about that… You just…” And she still couldn’t find the right words to say.

From behind the girls another voice spoke up. “Y-You stopped that thing by yourself…” It was Prince Aron, he followed Mimi close behind and stayed quiet once the moment got too serious for him. “I mean, that has to count for something… Right?”

Nebula thought for a few seconds. “Don’t think my parents will see it that way.” Some of the guards came running down the hallway after the three of them. “Let’s get out of here, Mimi, I’m not up to hearing my parents scold me now.”

“Let me take you then.” The Prince spoke up and both girls stared at him in confusion. “I-I mean… If you want to…” He pulled something from his back pocket. “I have my family’s scissors.”

It was Mimi that took the scissors from the boy’s hands. “Sure, it beats walking in the middle of the night with no shoes.” Or high heels in the Princess’ case. And Mimi had no problem taking the boy with them, Nebula didn’t or so it seemed for the wild girl. The trio disappeared behind a portal, leaving them inside the girl’s tree house.

While Nebula was busy cleaning herself up, the other two teenagers knew she needed some time alone to pass that little panic attack, Mimi and Aron made do with all the towels in the house. “So, do you know Nebula from somewhere or what?” Asked Mimi to their new guest.

“No, I met her today at the party. So is this place all yours?” He was already done cleaning his suit up, couldn’t do much to clear the stains but it was the best he was going to get without a shower.

Same went with Mimi and her borrowed dress. “Yeah, it’s technically my house, but Nebula spends as much time here as I do anyway.”

“Is the forest that entertaining?” Not like he has spent much time in the wilderness himself.

“Sure it is! Can’t get enough of it.” Right there, Nebula stepped out of the bathroom, all changed to her casual green hoodie and glasses.

“Hey, I’m fine now.” Still, she wished to remain there until things simmer down. Now talking to Aron. “Shouldn’t you go back to your family? They ought to be worry if you don’t show up early.”

The Prince shrug it off. “It’s fine, I’m more worried about you, though.” That was quite the show back in the castle.

“Yeah, don’t think your parents will let it go either.” And Mimi began looking worried about her friend. “What if they don’t let us hang around anymore?!”

Thankfully, Nebula knew her parents a little more than that. “They’ll never do that, can’t even say I have seen them angry towards me, ever. Although, I don’t think they’ll be so open about me moving here for good.”

“Wait, why would you want to move out of your home?” It sounded so weird hearing the Princess say that. Certainly not something he would say.

Nebula got caught inside her own thoughts before she was able to speak up. “Have you ever thought that you’re not where you belong?” Seemed so simple once she said it out loud. “I don’t think staying with my folks in the castle is where I should be. Can’t really say running to the forest is the best option, but I think it’s the right decision for me.” Yet, there was something she has been fighting with ever since she began thinking like this. Nebula let out a big sigh before saying it. “But I know what people think about things like this. I’m only fourteen, it’s normal to feel trapped in your life, you’ll grow out of it in due time.” Even she herself would agree her social skills weren’t up to standards, but this was different. Nebula was sure it’s not just a phase. “I’m fine growing up to become Queen, that’s in the future, I’m talking about the present.”

The Prince took some seconds to process all of that. “And, like, have you told your parents this?”

Another sigh from the Princess. “No, I have been too afraid to do it before. Then I got my staff and decided to bring the topic once I’m a better wielder. And now I messed up my chance for that.”

By now the three teenagers were sitting down on the ground, making a little triangle facing each other. “You should still say it, though.” Mimi spoke up, she’s been holding up to this for a while now. “The moment you realized you felt this way, it’s not something you should keep to yourself.” The wild girl knew nothing about Nebula's feelings, she thought it was something they will do for the fun of it, like a never-ending sleepover. Hearing all this new information made Mimi hug her knees close and hide her face. “You think I can stay with you while you figure out where you should be?”

Now it was Nebula trying to cheer Mimi up. “Sure! I promise I wouldn’t want anyone else to help me with this!” And she was quickly reminded of the boy’s presence and felt bad excluding him form all of this. “Sorry, you’re really awesome, I’ll love to hang up with you.” She scratched the back of her head after that, growing a bit shy with her words. “We don’t go into much adventures outside the forest, and the time we spend in the tree house we mostly read comic books and watch movies.” That and have long conversation about whatever they thought of.

“Although, the TV and computer have seen better days.” Mimi pointed at the beat up TV left in the corner of the room, just beside their boxes of books and DVDs.

Aron just chuckled and answered. “I’m sure we can figure that out later. I could swing by from time to time if that’s ok with you two.”

The girls agreed instantly to open their home to him. “Just come after midday, I don’t like waking up early.” Mimi stated and all of the room laughed about it. And the little group decided to spend some time sitting down and talking. They had a new friend to get to know and it was obvious he wanted to know more about the two of them. After some time had passed. “Nebula…” She got the attention of the Princess. “I think you should go home already, every minute here, the more your parents will be mad at you.” With that said the girls hugged goodbye and Nebula used Aron’s scissors to open up a portal to her room.

Now back in the castle, inside of Nebula’s room, the Princess looked nervous, and it fairly easy to figure why. “Still scared about talking with your parents?”

“Yeah…” And there was still a lingering question inside her mind. “Aron… Should I tell them how I feel?”

“Yes.” The boy answered quickly, much to Nebula’s surprise. “Listen, I don’t know about your family. But if I ever had something bothering me like that, I know I can speak about it with my dad without issues.” But he recognized it may not be the same as the Princess. “Hope that helps.”

Nebula saw him pulling out the scissors. “You going back home?”

“I have to pick up my escort first, but yeah, see you later.” He threw a small smile at Nebula.

“Sure, swing by the tree house whenever you like. We’ll do something fun.” And the Princess smiled back as she waved her new friend away. Just then, she remembered she never truly said sorry for ruining his suit.

Nebula sat on her bed for a while, thinking about everything that happened, and pondering if talking with her parent about how she felt is the right thing to do. Maybe it was all her little rebel phase acting up and those feelings with fade away in time. Yet, she couldn’t tone them down. It was like someone screaming inside her head telling her to go out there and find her true calling, or do what she was destined to do, or just better herself in her own way. Something she couldn’t do nor find if she keeps living that way. Then the fear started to settle in, fear and guilt. What if her parents let her go? She is one hundred percent sure her parents will be devastated, or at least they will worry themselves to death, about her leaving. No way she could do that to them. And the guilt came after that, all in all, this was an outright selfish thing to do. Putting her own wishes first and wanting the universe to adjust to them.

In between all those thoughts, her mother peaked inside her room. “Hey, can I come in?” She sounded so sweet like her daughter didn’t make a gigantic mess and ran away from it. Nebula said nothing and her mother walked in any way, sitting beside the Princess. “Don’t worry, your dad and I dealt with the guests and everything is being cleaned as we speak.” But that didn’t get Nebula to cheer up, understandable. “Hey, don’t worry about what happened. Sometimes you screw your spells up, it’s been only a month with your wand.” Now talking from experience. “We are not mad at you, not even disappointed, maybe I shouldn’t have pushed you to this so early.” Not even a peep from her kid, now this was worrying.

Nebula finally gathered enough courage to speak up. “Mom… I don’t want to live in the castle anymore.”

That sure took the Queen by surprise. “What?! Listen, everybody, screws up from time to time, but…”

But Nebula cut her off. The girl separated from her mother and stood in front of her. “It’s not like that! I don’t like it here no more, I feel trapped all the time, every second I spend here is just so hard that I just want to escape!”

Her mother was quick to talk back. “Yes, everybody feels like that. But leaving home isn’t the answer!”

“But I can’t help it, mom! And I feel awful thinking like this. I’m a princess, I can have everything I want, I have a freaking magic staff! But I’m not happy!” That last statement silence the whole room. “I’m just not happy…” And the tears began flowing. “…I-I really wish I could be more like you, mom. You’re always happy, always smiling, I just want to be like that and… And…” She wiped her nose, along with some tears. “And I want to know why I can’t feel happy with myself.” Nebula couldn’t go on after that, her emotions got the better of her.

And Star couldn’t take it any longer and brought the girl closer for a hug. They hugged tightly and didn’t say anything else. She figured it was better to let Nebula calm herself down before her answer. Just as Star was about to speak up, she realized she was tearing up a little bit too. “And where would you go, to the forest?”

Answering quickly. “You two let Mimi live there alone.”

Star sighed before speaking. “You know it wasn’t that simple.” Without letting her go. “Can I do anything to change your mind?” The only thing she could say, keeping herself short of actually begging. “I-I promise I’ll spend more time with you, work together to perfect your magic, for real. We could visit your grandparents on Earth, haven’t seen them in a while now.” Nebula began trying to break the hug. “I’ll get your dad to lay low on the stern talks.” But Star tightened her grip, not wanting to let the girl go. “We can get you a pair of scissors for you to go on adventures, no curfew time…” Nebula was finally able to slip away from her arms. “I just want you to be happy…” Star cleaned her tears away.

Nebula was still crying and cleaned her tears with the sleeve of her hoodie. “I won’t pretend that this is the right thing to do, but the tree house is good enough for me, and I can take care of myself fine without magic staff.”

“How did you grow up so fast?” Star couldn’t think about anything else there. It used to be so easy to kept Nebula happy, the girl seemed fine just having her parents around to take care of her. And now she couldn’t do anything to keep her kid from going away.

“Look, I’m not saying forever.” At least she hoped to. “I’ll be Queen and rule the kingdom like you. But right now, I need to do something about myself. Maybe I’m not right and this will fix me up.”

“Don’t say that. There’s nothing wrong with you, sweetie!” Just hearing her say that hurt her so much. “Tell your dad.” Star received a shocked expression from Nebula. “If you want us to think about this, you’re gonna have to say to him what you just said to me. Make him understand how you feel.” Marco was as much a part of this than both of them. There was no way Star would make this decision without consulting him. It was just a matter of going to his room right now. The short walk to her parent’s room gave Nebula enough time to think about what to say. At least she had calmed down enough for her to keep it together for the coming talk, she could only hope that she doesn’t end up crying like she did in front of her mother. Marco was arranging some paperwork in his desk when they arrived, and they went down to business.

To Nebula’s surprise, she was able to keep it together and explain how she felt much better than before, her nerves felt ready to snap at any second, but she said everything she wanted clear enough. In the end of it all, Star excused her off to discuss the topic in private. Pretty much as soon as the door closed behind Nebula. “What is there to discuss, she isn’t going anywhere!” Marco was quick to reach his decision.

“Marco! It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is! We are her parents if we don’t agree with something we don’t let her do it.”

“I get that, believe me, I do, but didn’t you listened to her? This is important, we have to at least think about it.” Parenting ain’t so black and white at times after all. “You can’t really be suggesting we ignore the problem and do nothing.”

Still, Marco wouldn’t take, or accept, that they couldn’t help their own daughter on their own. “Sending her to live by herself isn’t the answer either. Such a strong change is going to mess…”

But Star cut him off right there. “Spare me the psychologist talk! She told us, quite clearly, what’s troubling her, and how we can help her. Hell, I moved out of the castle at her age.”

“Yeah, and you moved in with my family. She wants to go live in a banged up tree house in the woods.” And with no adult supervision to top it all.

Star let out a small sigh, not something she hasn’t thought about by now. “The house is basically in our backyard and there’s nothing stopping us from swinging by anytime.” Except for work and time constraints, but they could always send a guard to keep an eye on Nebula. “But, Marco… She isn’t happy here, didn’t that hurt you?” It sure shook her to the core, even remembering Nebula’s words made Star look down in sadness.

Which got the attention of Marco, making him hold hands with his wife, trying to console her. “It did, Star, of course, it did. And I didn’t even noticed it, wish I could have seen the clues before. But sending her away isn’t right, Nebula needs us.” Going back to Star’s past, going to Earth wasn’t her decision and she would have been fine staying on Mewni at that time. So that didn’t hold much strength as an argument here.

Star locked eyes with her husband and said. “You’re right.” But what came next took Marco by surprise. “And the best she can do now is follow her wishes.” Just when he thought he changed her mind, Star proved herself more stubborn than him. “Nebula isn’t like I was at her age, she is smarter, to begin with. But she is so shy and kind of a scary cat. I can’t help but think that’s my fault.” Not like there was something wrong with any of that, but it was their parental skills that are to blame for Nebula’s current state. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the crown so soon. We barely spend time with her as it is, no wonder she distanced herself from us.”

Knowing Nebula had two parents, Marco wasn’t about to let Star take all the blame. “Hey, maybe opening a consolatory wasn’t the best idea, I mean, that’s more time I’m not spending with her. I knew I should have taught her karate.” Some lessons here and there would help as a bonding experience, they may even have helped Nebula gain some confidence. Both parents sat down on their bed before continuing. “Maybe we could cut down our hours and hang out more as family, we haven’t seen her grandparents in a while.”

Star looked down once more. “I already told her that. It’s too late for that…” And she knew none of this would actually change Marco’s mind. She needed to really speak up her worries. “Marco, I’m really scared about this. About what could happen if we don’t listen to her. I don’t want Nebula to grow up bitter and angry at us because we didn’t listen.” Star leaned on her husband’s shoulder. “I don’t want her to go, and I wish there was something we could do, but I can’t think of anything.”

Marco hugged Star tight before speaking. “…Let’s… Can’t we just…” He was trying so hard to answer her doubts, to come up with something to fix the issue. “I don’t want her to go, this is her home.” Was the only answer he could come up with.

Aware of what he was really saying, Star answered. “I’m scared too, but have some faith in our girl, she might surprise us in the end.” More like, she will surprise them, Star knew how amazing Nebula could be. “I’m sure if we think about it together, we could work something out. Some way we could keep an eye on Nebula and take care of her even if she is living by herself.” Marco took a deep breath and stayed silent for some seconds. It was all he could do to accept this. And they were both open to the idea of working something out, to make this process easy for everybody involved.

In the end, even with both parents never fully accepting the idea, Nebula got her wish granted. It wasn’t something done overnight, things needed to be prepared for moving day. What followed was some magic training and long talks between the Princess and her parents about what she was planning to do out there, how will she look after herself, and setting up some rules that Nebula needed to follow to the letter. No problem there, the Princess knew that she wasn’t going away without taking some regulations with her. And some two weeks later, Nebula was making her way to the tree house as fast as possible with her newer friend at hand, she needed to tidy up the place before her parents got there.

And Aron volunteered to help I any way he could. Which he knew wasn’t going to be enough once he saw the tree house from the outside. “Sorry, Nebula. I don’t think we have enough time.”

Mimi was already tired of all the cleaning she had to do, but that was on the inside. She tried excusing herself. “Everything just kept piling up, sorry. Maybe if your parents can give you another week…”

But Nebula knew they didn’t have more time. “It has to be now or never.” Determined not to fail on the first day, Nebula prepared her magic staff. “I’m going to create the best tree house there has ever been!” She didn’t even have time to get nervous about using her magic. The Princess merely had to picture the tree house inside her mind and gather all of her energy in the staff. “Clear the area!” Her friends stepped out of the way and Nebula was free to fire her magic.

The teenagers could see the tree house change in front of their eyes. Firstly, the tree that supported the house grew bigger at first and its leaves regained color. Nebula’s magic began repairing the house, patching up the windows and giving life back to the old wood. It also grew extra areas. When it first hanged by one of the tree’s sides, now the house circled all around the tree and a second floor was added, all of that with the proper support beams to keep it standing. Another building appeared too, connected to the main house by enclosed stairs, but this one wasn’t hanging from any tree, it actually stood on the ground and looked like a small wooden cabin with a chimney. It seemed Nebula created tree house that had a main hall or living room on the ground.

Which was more than her friends expected. “Yay, new house!” Yelled Mimi, amazed at their new place.

The Prince took some seconds, waiting for something to happen, before speaking up. “That was truly something, and you made it without doubting yourself.” Such a different show from the first time he saw Nebula use her magic.

Nebula was still amazed that she managed to do this. She barely put any thought into the whole ordeal but she did it without screwing it up. Maybe all that practice she had with her mom helped after all. In due time too, she could hear the sound of trumpets signaling her parent’s arrival. The trio of friends met with the King and Queen, who arrived at the side in a carriage and were escorted there by a group of guards. Nebula’s parents stepped out of the carriage and saw the new tree house, amazed at the work they thought all three teenagers put on fixing the place up for the last couple of weeks. “Good work, kids. You fix up this old place by yourselves.” First on their list of things Nebula needed to do for this to happen. The King signaled to a couple of servants to take something out of the back of the carriage. “Your mom and I got you this, think of it as a gift for your new house.”

The servants placed the gift on the ground, all wrapped up in cloths and held by ropes, and proceeded to uncover it. A huge mirror stood in front of the Princess and the Queen walked forward. “Is a new magic mirror! Feel free to call us for everything, we will always answer.” And their numbers were already saved in the mirror. “Also this…” She handed Nebula a long piece of cloth displaying the family’s colors. “It’s a banner, hang it were people can see it and they’ll know not to mess with you.” Nebula handed the banner to Mimi and the Queen signaled the servants to move the mirror inside.

There was nothing else they could say there. Well, there was. “Thank you, guys, for everything.” And Nebula approached both of her parents, hugging them close. “I love you so much.”

Star and Marco hugged their daughter back and Marco said. “And we love you. Remember what we talked about and be careful out here.” They separated and he threw in another point. “Feel free to visit every time you want.”

“Thank you.” And before her parents could go back. “See you later!” For everything that happened, Nebula knew this wasn’t a goodbye. She never intended for this to be anything but a see you later.

Nebula and her friends stayed outside, waving goodbye to the convoy until they were out of sight. “So, what do you want to do now?” Prince Aron asked before the main hall of the new tree house began rumbling, getting all of their attention. After some seconds of more grumbling, a huge pine tree grew from the inside of the building and through the wooden ceiling. The teenagers rushed inside and saw the hall’s main support beam that stood in the middle of the room transformed back into a tree with branches and leaves. “Well, that was perfect timing.” Some minutes earlier and Nebula’s parent would have witnessed that. A quick checkup later, the teenagers concluded the tree was still supporting the roof, so there was no problem leaving it like that. “Actually, don’t this place seemed kind of…empty?”

The girls took a look around and saw this main hall had a kitchen area and some tables with chairs, but that was it. Every shelve was empty and no electro domestics to make a proper kitchen. “Yeah…” A great idea appeared inside of Mimi’s mind. “We should go shopping!”

Aron chuckled at that. “Yes, this is your new home, you should fill it with more personality.” And he knew where they should go for that. “Let’s stop by Quest Buy and but everything we need in one go.” He took out his dimensional scissors, ready to take his friends shopping. Only to see Nebula getting worried. “What’s wrong?”

“I…I don’t know…My parents told me not to get out of this dimension.” It was in the top five rules she needed to follow while staying here.

“C’mon, Nebula, this is our new house, we deserve to have a great home, and it won’t take us long.” And Mimi smiled at her friend, trying to change her mind.

Aron opened up a portal to their destination. “And I promise you, we are going to have fun.” That should be their main focus now.

Nebula smiled at her two friends and decided to go along with it. “Alright, let’s make a proper home out of this place!” And off they went. The first day of Nebula living in her own house and she was already having fun. The Princess could only hope that things stay like this until she can figure out what she should be doing with her magic. But she knew there was nothing to worry about with her friends by her side, for she knew they could manage to make her smile no matter what may happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some quick notes: I like Nebula using plants to contrast Star's more animal-based spells.
> 
> It's been a while since I was 14 so much of the angst of the age is lost to me. Although, I hope that part wasn't handled in a wrong way. On the same note, I'm not a parent so, yeah.
> 
> Anyway, feel free to critique and ask questions, I'll love to hear you out.


	2. Heinous Time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, new chapter!

More than a month after Nebula moved to her new home and everything was going great for the princess. Until One day, out of nowhere, Nebula received a message from a guard patrol. The message scroll came from her parents and it was a request for her to swing by the castle later that day. That wasn’t a problem for the girls, they just needed to do some work before heading out.

As soon as they arrived, the girls were told to sit down and wait in the hallway. Something that rubbed both Mimi and Nebula the weird way. “What do you think they want?”

“Dunno, they could have called the mirror and tell me at least.” Nebula reread the scroll they received and it indeed said nothing but the hour and place for this meeting.

Mimi got worried quickly. “You think they’ll force you to come back?!”

“Nah, I would have expected more angry screaming if that was the case.” Right there, the door to the next room opened and the Princess was asked to come inside.

The girls were greeted by Nebula’s mother as soon as they entered. She hugged the girls close. “So good to see you, girls.” Even if the note was only for Nebula.

As they separated, the Princess asked. “Same here, but, did something happened?”

They could hear somebody coughing from the other side of the room and the girls could see the person responsible for this. It was an older woman with grey hair, all dressed up in a greyish pink dress and a pair of white gloves. What caught Nebula’s attention was the woman’s cheek marks, a pair of club-shaped marks colored grey. The Queen looked worried but proceeded with the introductions. “Nebula, this woman is your… Aunt… Long distant Aunt.” Yeah, let’s go with that. “And she is your godmother.”

And Nebula had nothing to say in response, dropping a new family member out of nowhere with the information that she is her godmother was weird enough, but it did answer the question of why her mother opted to deliver this information in person. Remembering her manners, the Princess walked towards her godmother to say hello. With a firm handshake. “Hi, good to meet you.”

The woman smiled. “So very good to finally meet you, Princess.” But abstained herself from hugging the girl.

With the handshake over. “Are you, like, my magical godmother?”

That made the woman chuckle a little bit. “Well, I can use magic, but I wouldn’t call myself that.”

Before they could get too friendly, The Queen grabbed Nebula by her shoulders and pulled her back a few steps. “Now listen, sweetie, Miss Meteora is here to ask you something.”

“Oh, yes!” Those words sure cheer her up. “Nebula, when you were a small little baby, your parents decided that I should teach you how to be a great princess once you were old enough. That’s the reason I’m here today.” Yet more information to process in such a short amount of time. And Nebula could feel her mother’s hands tighten around her shoulders as the godmother talked. “Just some short lessons, nothing too complicated or time-consuming.” More smiles from her.

This left Nebula drawing blanks. She was pretty much corner in this situation so it was no surprise she accepted. “S-Sure, but… I mean… I don’t live in the castle anymore…”

“Yeah, and in such a small, old tree house in the forest. Surely not a place you would want to visit.” Well, thanks, mom, thought the Princess.

“Let’s not worry about that for now. I’m sure we can make it work” At least someone was enthusiastic about this.

Although, it has been a long while since Nebula had a tutor. “Is your decision, sweetie.”

Trying to hide her worried face. “Alright, can’t see anything wrong with it.” Her godmother smiled hard. “When are we starting? Because there are still some things that I need to take care of today.”

The godmother didn’t drop her smile and picked up a duffle bag she brought along. “Excellent, take me with you, I must see your home.”

Not able to stop them anymore, The Queen called her servants. “I’ll tell them to prepare a carriage for the three of you.”

It was during the ride back to the tree house that Nebula’s godmother began asking her questions. “Tell me about this tree house of yours, and what made you move from the castle?”

Quick with her answer. “I created it myself with my staff.” Nebula showed the staff to the old woman. “Well, fixed it and upgraded it, actually. But it’s amazing, we have everything we need, and it’s in the middle of the forest.”

Mimi intervened there, she kept quiet during family business but that was over already. “And we always work hard in the forest, we keep everything nice and perfect around there. No stupid wolf is going to take that away from us you can be sure of that.”

The godmother stared at Mimi for a few seconds before saying. “That’s amazing, girls. But, I’m sorry, they never introduced us. Are you one of the servants, or a royal guard perhaps?”

That caught Nebula’s attention. “She is my best friend, Minthe, but she goes by Mimi.” Which brought another question from her. “So, should I call you godmother, or Miss, or…”

“Mmmmmm, I’ll really like it if you call me Miss Heinous.” Both girls raised an eyebrow at that request, not the name they heard back in the castle. “I was thinking that I’ll be your tutor, not your aunt, so that should work better in this.”

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. “No problem here. But I really don’t think we will have the time for class today. There’s a lot to do in the forest.”

“Don’t worry about today, Princess. Let’s dedicate this day to you and your normal routine. I wish to see how you live in that forest of yours.” Now, this comment made Nebula smile. It was good having someone take an interest in their work, and Miss Heinous looked genuinely curious about this, so why not grant her this request.

As soon as they got out of the carriage, the girls lead Miss Heinous inside their home. It was Nebula that started the presentation. “This is the main building. It consists of the great hall…” Several rows of picnic benches made out of fine wood littered the hall, around the tree they had grown in the middle of the building, and a stone chimney at the end of the room. “Over here is the kitchen…” Consisting of a large bar area with empty shelves, a door that led to the next room full of kitchen appliances, and a cellar door to the basement. Nebula brought her godmother to the back of the kitchen and in front of a closed door. “Behind this door, there are some stairs that go all the way to the tree house and our rooms.” As close to their rooms as the two girls felt comfortable showing. “That’s pretty much everything in here. Now, let’s go out and…” The group could hear someone in the great hall.

Going back to the hall, they discovered it was Aron, fresh out from exiting a portal. “Hey, what’s up?” His casual attire consisted of a black tank top and blue jeans. The Prince quickly noticed Miss Heinous standing behind his friends. “I came at a bad time?”

With a smile on her face, Nebula made the introductions. “He is a friend of mine, Aron. He is a Prince.”

The godmother and Prince awkwardly shook hands and Miss Heinous spoke up. “Yes, a boy… Do you come here often?” And without knocking no less.

Not noticing the atmosphere, Nebula elaborated. “Oh yes, every single day to be precise. We are like a second home to this guy.” And she hugged the boy close. “She is my godmother, we are showing her around the forest, let’s go!” Nebula grabbed them by the hand and ran outside, there was a lot to show.

Walking to the back of the main building, Mimi showed Miss Heinous another piece of their home. “This is our stable. We don’t have any animals, but we like to keep the doors open and food in stock in case some of them need a place to stay.” Pretty standard stable.

Nebula moved on to the fenced area and started showing the newest addition. “We even have a little garden to grow vegetables.” Everything was separated into small areas depending on the type of vegetables. There was even a small shed where they kept all the gardening tools. “It’s all natural here, I don’t even use magic to grow them.”

With the immediate area dealt with, the group moved deeper into the forest. A small walk later and they arrived inside a small clearing filled with flowers of all kinds, and in the middle of this clearing, a greenhouse. “This is our flower field, I made them blossom with my magic, but the best part is inside the greenhouse.” Following a stone path into the greenhouse, Miss Heinous saw what she was talking about. First of all, the greenhouse was also filled with flowers, but there were some boxes around the place that caught her attention. “Those are our beehives. I got them from Earth.” The Princess approach a row of lockers to the side and pulled out some equipment to handle the bees. “And it’s time to gather the honey!”

Nebula passed on the equipment to her friend, but Miss Heinous declined to help. Apart from the net lines and gloves to protect the teenagers from being stung, they also had large metal tubes. “It’s something I helped them built.” Aron noticed the godmother’s expression and decided to explain. “You insert the tube in this little hole on the box and give it some spins. The honey falls down into the buckets and no bees are harmed.” The bee boxes were supported by four legs with enough space to place a wooden bucket underneath.

With all the bee boxes leaking honey, it was just a matter of waiting for the buckets to fill up, Nebula joined the conversation. “Aron came up with the design after I told him I didn’t want to hurt the bees. And it’s great because of free honey!” She reached down the box and grabbed some of the leaking honey in her fingers to taste it. Nebula’s eyes lightened up as that sweet taste hit her mouth. “It’s wonderful!” She grabbed some more with her fingers. “Don’t you think, Mimi?” The girl was laying down underneath the falling honey to catch it with her mouth. “Mimi!”

Finally hearing her name being called out, Mimi stood up, placed the bucket in her place, and swallow all the honey in her mouth. “Yeah, amazing. This is going to take a while, let's move on. We still need to visit Oaky.”

Deeming that a good point, Nebula filled two watering cans with water and the group headed out. This time, they arrived on a burned field with several young trees planted. “There was a wildfire a few weeks ago and this whole area of the forest burnt down.” Nebula passed on the cans to Aron and he began watering the trees. “We began growing new trees to fill it up, but it’s going to take some time until it goes back to normal.” Especially without magic, but Nebula thought it better this way than to speed up the process and have something go high wire in the middle of it.

Miss Heinous looked worried at the sight, it was a large area and the teenagers only had a small patch of land as a work in progress. She then spotted a tree to the side. “At least one tree survived.” To her surprise, the tree grumbled to the touch.

Nebula explained. “That isn’t a tree, well, it is, but it’s more than that.” The tree in question looked down to them. It was standing on two trunks and had thick branches akin to arms. Its ‘head’ was filled with leaves and some of the bark sunk and rise to form the shape of a face. Two glowing lights worked as a pair of eyes on that face. “To clean up the area, I raised some of the surrounding trees as golems. But once the job was done, this one stayed like this and wouldn’t root himself back.” The tree golem stood taller than the tree house and his limbs resounded every time it moved them.

Mimi got closer and hugged the tree. “Anyway, we decided to keep him and I named it Oaky. It doesn’t do much, mostly guard the field and stare at the moon at night.”.

“Right, sorry about all the stops, but this is the last one for today.” Nebula apologized to her godmother. “Once we are done, let’s go back to the house and we can talk.” Or whatever the woman wanted, she was their guest.

Truth to her word, the group ended their work out in the forest and retreated back to their home. Once inside, Miss Heinous made a beeline to the kitchen. “I’ll make some tea for us.”

Confused by that statement, Mimi asked. “We have tea?”

As she said that, Miss Heinous pulled out a teapot and some tea from her duffle bag. It took some seconds to prepare the fire and leave the water resting. As they waited for the water to boil, once again, Miss Heinous began setting up one of the tables with things she took out of her duffle bag. From cups and dishes to cream and sugar, everything they needed for a proper tea party. She even had some crumpets prepared. With the water boiling back in the kitchen, Heinous smiled and said. “Everybody sit down.”

Now that all of them were sitting down, and the tea was poured, Mimi missed no time asking. “So, are you really Nebula’s aunt?” That question sure took the Princess by surprise, not like she wasn’t thinking just that, but she would have been more subtle about it.

“Oh, not even I know how we are related by blood, but there is a connection there.” The marks were a sure sign of that. Heinous asked Nebula. “Are you sure you don’t remember me, or my mother, Eclipsa?” That last name sure rang some bells with the Princess, she was sure she had heard it before, but couldn’t join the name with a face. Nebula’s confused stare told Miss Heinous all she needed. “Maybe you were so young you don’t remember, such a shame.”

Nebula looked down. “Sorry.” Her godmother seemed alright, she felt bad about never speaking to her before today. “Wait, why didn’t you try to contact me before? Don’t think my parents would have been against it.”

Quick to clear any doubts. “That was solely my fault, Princess. I had a lot to work on, some issues I needed to deal with, it left me with no time for family.” Her face brightened up there. “But now I can finally reopen my school for princesses. And you will be my first student.”

Worried, a lot of red flags showing all around there, Aron asked. “What happened to the first one?”

“The rebel princesses destroy it. I built that school to reform young ladies so that they could tackle life the right way. Too bad not all of them saw it like this.”

The boy squinted his eyes. “What was the name of this school?”

“St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses” The woman wasn’t paying much attention to the boy, or his questions. “But I’m still on the edge about keeping that name.”

In the middle of their tea party, someone knocked on the door and it was Nebula that answered. “Dad? What are you doing here?”

It was so rare to have her parents visit the tree house, especially out of nowhere. “Hey, honey, just making the usual rounds that I make every day in no specific schedule.” He yelled that last part to make sure everybody inside the hall could hear him. “Also, your mom baked cookies.”

Mimi ran to the door pretty much after hearing those words. “Yay, burnt cookies!”

The King pulled out another container of cookies and handed them to Nebula. “I also baked a batch. How are you? How is your godmother treating you?” He was giving the side eye to the woman as she asked this.

And Nebula answered. “Fine and all, we haven’t even begun the classes yet.” 

Miss Heinous approached the pair at the door. “And it’s getting kind of late already, I should be heading back to the castle.” She hugged the Princess goodbye. “Good thing you brought the carriage with you.” And she walked to the guarded carriage, waiting for the King to accompany her so they could get going.

The King let out a big sigh. “I’m sorry if she caused you any trouble.” A comment that didn’t sit well with Nebula. The woman literally did nothing wrong, there was no need for that. With her father saying his goodbyes too, the teenagers were left alone for the day.

With some tea and now cookies available, the three of them stayed in the hall while they decided what to do next. “So, your godmother seemed nice,” Mimi spoke up.

Aron was quick to show his worries. “I don’t know, something didn’t felt right with her.” Maybe not the person itself, but her story and the reason she was there, to begin with.

Nebula gave out a small sigh. “No, Aron, don’t be like that.” That sure confused the boy. “You sound like my parents. Just because she is a little upright, it doesn’t mean she is bad or anything.”

“You think there’s foul play in here?” Mimi asked.

“Well, springing a family member out of nowhere that just so happens to be my godmother doesn’t sound like something my parents would do without reason. Maybe they want to spy on me?” But she quickly shot that idea down, that really didn’t sound like something her parents would do, not even consider.

Mimi asked, putting some honey on her burnt cookies as she did so. “Maybe she is telling the truth and just wants to open her school.”

Knowing only one person’s opinion mattered here. “Well, it’s up to Nebula if she wants her back.”

Nebula finished her tea and stood up. “Let’s not worry about that anymore and go upstairs to play.” Everything they did once all their work was done. Go upstairs and play video games.

Tomorrow came fast for all of them, but there was no sign of Miss Heinous at first. Nebula and Mimi ate their breakfast and caught up on their work before the godmother could arrive. Now they could start with the lessons. First was something common. “Let’s make some tea.” The godmother tasked the Princess to make tea.

That was simple enough for the Princess, especially with Miss Heinous providing her with the materials. So while Nebula was busy in the kitchen, Heinous worked in the hall, preparing everything for the lesson. With Nebula all alone, her friends called her attention from behind the door to the rooms. Walking towards them, she could see Aron carrying his laptop and Mimi looking quite worried. “What’s up?”

First one to speak up was Aron. “Nebula, your godmother is crazy.” He could see the Princess roll her eyes. “I’m being serious, look…” Nebula grabbed his laptop and could see some article about St O’s, Miss Heinous previous school. “I searched all of yesterday and found some articles from Miss Heinous’ previous students.”

Nebula could read some awful things they all said happened in that school, growing more worried the more she read. “I say let’s kick her out of our home.” Mimi threw out her opinion.

Still hanging in there. “C’mon, like everything on the internet, is true.” Now it was her friends giving her the disbelieving looks. “She hasn’t done anything to us. What if she did change after all those years?”

Before Aron could speak up once more, Miss Heinous surprised them by entering the room. “Princess, the water is already boiling, you’re lucky that I heard it from the hall.” Her eyes wandered to the boy. “Oh, sorry but you can’t be here.” Which caught all of them in shock surprise.

Nebula’s reaction was summed up with a loud. “What?!”

“Princess, you can’t have a boy wander in here every time he wants. Is not proper.”

Not taking any of that, the Princess spoke up. “Woah! Aron is a friend, you can’t tell him off like that.”

And Mimi backed her up. “Yeah! Besides, he is more of a girl than I am.”

“Yeah… Wait, what?” The boy could see Mimi giggling in secret.

Ignoring her friends. “The point is, Aron stays.”

Miss Heinous had to take some steps back, her face growing redder with every step she took, and it was obvious that she was trying hard to hold herself back. Maybe she was trying to stop herself from screaming at the teenagers, or she wasn’t used to being called out, nonetheless, she stopped after some seconds. “Whatever you wish, Princess. I’ll just… I’ll fix another seat at the table.” And off she went to the hall.

Now Nebula had more doubts growing inside her head. “I told you, crazy.” And Aron’s comment didn’t help.

“She backed down…” Nebula had to let out a big sigh. “Let’s go, see how everything goes.” Although not convinced about any of this, Mimi and Aron decided to go along. Better to stay close to Nebula in case something does happen.

But before the teenagers could go back to the hall, Heinous came wit, carrying three dresses with her. “Now, change to these.” The dresses were simple enough and looked easy to just slip on over their clothes. That didn’t stop the teenagers from looking confused. “It’s part of the lesson. A proper princess must know how to wear a dress, including the different kinds of dresses there are for all kinds of occasions. The boy can change upstairs tough.” Relenting, the kids retreated to change clothes.

Some minutes later and all the women were ready by the table, just waiting for their last member. “Mmmmm…” They could head from the kitchen. “I don’t think I’m coming out.” Aron thought he could bite the bullet and dress in drag if it meant staying, but he couldn’t deny his own embarrassment at the moment.

Not able to let this opportunity pass, Nebula spoke up. “C’mon, are you really going to get like this after everything I said?”

“No, seriously, pretty sure you’re going to be fine.” Nebula signed to Mimi and the girl walked towards the door in silence.

Nebula knew she needed to buy some time. “Is just the four of us here, no cameras or anything. Don’t be a chicken.”

“Look, if you need me or anything, you can just call me, but I’m getting out of this dress and…” Right there, Mimi reached out and pulled the boy out of the kitchen. “Mimi!” He could feel the stares all over him and proceeded to cover his eyes.

The girls giggled and Nebula spoke up. “Hey, you actually look good in those garments.” Not even his metal arm could throw the look off.

He looked so cute that Mimi hugged him close. “Ease up, man, you’re a better girl than I could ever be.”

“That’s not helping, girls.” Done with all the laughter. “Let’s finish this stupid lesson already.” A comment that stirred up Miss Heinous but she managed to hide it.

Heinous showed them to their table, already covered in a white cloth, but empty of anything else. “Now, Princess, I’ll show you how to set up the table for a tea party.” An easy process and it was easier for Nebula with her following Heinous' instructions. “The table is set, pour your guest some tea.” The Princess did just that and now that they all had their cups filled. “Now, every tea party must be accompanied by a chat. Let me see how you hold up a conversation with your friends.” She will observe from the sidelines and see how good Nebula is at this, afterward she can correct her if need be.

After some seconds of silence, Nebula asked. “So, Mimi, you watered Oaky today?”

“Gee, Nebula, I think I forgot.” Mimi then spotted the snacks and helped herself to some of them.

The Princess rolled her eyes at that answer. “Mimi, you’re supposed to be responsible for it.”

Faking some offense to that. “Excuse me? Who is the one that brought Oaky to life?”

“Hey, you name it you care for it. Pretty sure that’s one of the household rules.” Nebula asked Aron. “Ain’t that right?”

The boy already had his laptop with him to check the household rules. “Indeed, rule number four clearly states that whoever names it cares for it.”

Looking annoyed, Mimi relented. “I’ll swing by after the lesson is over. But I’ll change clothes before going, this one is too tight in the chest area.”

A comment that sparkle another topic for the table. “Mine is in the hips and waist.” Which prompted Aron to think he should lay off on the sweets for a while. “Don’t know how princesses can go around inside these corsets.”

Mimi chuckled and share her thoughts. “That’s because you have child-bearing hips there.” The girl couldn’t contain her laughter after seeing Aron blush at her comment.

“Shut up Mimi.” Was the only thing he could answer with. Their eyes quickly wandered towards Nebula. The Princess was looking quite gloomy at the talk. “Is there something wrong?”

In a low tone, almost a whisper, Nebula answered. “My dress is loose in both the chest and hips.” And her friends giggling at that just made her sulk even harder.

They quickly moved to different topics and the chat went lively quick enough. But this wasn’t a long tea party, and by the end of it, Miss Heinous got everybody’s attention. “What is it, Miss, did Nebula pass the lesson?” Mimi asked it went quite well in her mind.

“Sadly, no, she failed.” She said it with such calmness in her voice too. “The Princess is lacking in table manners and the three of you don’t know the first thing about table chatter.” 

But Nebula didn’t seem bothered by the news like she was already expecting to fail today’s lesson. “Well, isn’t that why I’m here? You can’t expect me to know everything at first.” And her friends were just in for the joyride

Now happy that the Princess caught on. “Exactly, that's the reason for my visits here, to evaluate your lifestyle and see where you can improve.” This didn’t sound right for the teenagers. “First of all, we should move you out of this forest. Someplace where you can take lessons without interruption.”

Quick to go on the defensive, Mimi brought Nebula close. “What’s wrong with our treehouse?!”

“Princess, you live like a peasant.” To put it simply. “No way you can learn to be a proper princess while living like this. All of this is good for hobbies but you can’t expect to be treated like royalty by learning how to tend a garden or fool around in the forest. I tried to give you some layaway, but I just can’t see it.”

Aron rolled his eyes, he was done with the godmother. “I told you, Nebula, she is crazy.”

“What did you say, boy?!”

Standing up for his friend. “That you’re crazy! We know how you treated the princesses in your previous school, and now you want to do the same with Nebula!”

They all could see Heinous’ face growing redder. “And I’m sure her parents put you up to this. You can tell them she is happy here and you won’t take her away.”

Now speaking up for herself. “What makes you think I’ll up and go with you just like that anyway? I barely even know you.”

Slamming her fist onto the table, Miss Heinous yelled at them. “Nebula, don’t you want to become a real, proper princess?! You could make your parents proud and show them how much you can change for good.”

Taking offense to that, Nebula stood up to face her godmother. “And who are you to say my parents aren’t proud of me?! For the last time, I ain’t going anywhere!” Miss Heinous yelled in anger. “Aron is right, you’re crazy. Get out of my house.”

“I’m not crazy!” Heinous let out another loud scream in the air, only this time, her appearance began to change. Her ears began growing, getting pointy by the ends, along with her face becoming more angular and her eyes becoming yellow. Her teeth turned into fangs and she grew some inches. But what really changed for the worst was her left arm, not only was it bigger, but also grew what appeared to be red scales that covered the whole arm.

Springing into action, the teenagers jumped away from the table just in time to avoid Heinous’ bash. The woman prepared her next attack, a punch with her monster arm, but Aron caught it in midair with his metal arm. But Heinous recovered quickly and moved to grab the Prince by his arm and throw him out through the window.

“Hey, I just fixed that window!” Mimi picked up one of the chairs and charged against the crazy woman, breaking it on her back with all her might. Able to brush the attack off, Heinous backhanded the girl and moved to face Nebula.

The Princess, with staff ready for the fight, shot a blast to the ground Heinous was standing on, which make a ton of roots appear from the floor and trap Heinous’ feet. Nebula used this chance to pick Mimi up and ran outside. Now outside, the teenagers prepared for Heinous to come out, it was better to move the fight outside where they could move more freely. With a huge scream, the godmother ran outside and continued the fight. Each teenager tried to subdue the woman with their own tactics, but surprisingly, Heinous was able to fight them off and hold her ground, so much berserker rage would do that. No mattered how much Mimi and Aron flank her and tried to hold her down, or the kind of spell Nebula shot at her, Heinous pushed through their tactics every time.

With the fight going badly for the teenagers, they began retreating deeper into the forest, with their enemy following in close pursuit. “Alright, enough!” Nebula screamed, tired of this whole fight. The Princess, while still running away from her attacker, shot several blasts to the trees around them. Her magic kicked up pretty soon afterward, with hundreds of vines coming out of the trees and attacking the godmother. The vines wrapped all around Heinous’ body, tighten around her to keep her from escaping, and with so many that there was no way she would break out with sheer force. 

“Alright, go Nebula!” Aron celebrated their victory.

Giving her friend a high five, Nebula inspected her work. “Now we just need to call my parents and so they can deal with…” She was interrupted by a loud cracking sound coming from the vines she summoned. Maybe they were too quick to celebrate as the godmother managed to pull herself down, still wrapped by some of the vines, and began running towards the trio. Heinous was so strong she broke free of the vines and all that momentum she built up pretty much shot her against the teenagers, making her crash with the group at high speed.

With Heinous still wrapped in some of the vines as she began rolling around the ground, vines that trapped the teenagers as soon as the godmother crashed against them, so the whole group ended up rolling around the forest without being able to escape. At the end of all of that, they landed in the burnt fields and the ball of vines split up. The teenagers landed together and were dazed by all that rolling. Heinous on the other hand was quick to get on her feet and approach the trio. As they were trying to stand up, Nebula could see that Heinous was changing more and more, with more of her skin turning red and growing scales all over.

But before Heinous could go on the attack, a huge wooden hand landed on top of her. Once the teenagers were able to assimilate what happened they could see their savor. “Hell yeah, Oaky!” The tree golem was kneeling down, his hand still resting on top of the godmother. “You squashed Nebula’s crazy godmother!”

“Wait, Mimi, she is still alive.” Nebula could hear the pained grunts coming from under the giant hand. She moved closer and could see that Oaky didn’t crush Heinous but trapped her inside of her hand, with the fingers functioning like prison bars. More than likely the godmother hit her head with the golem’s open hand as it landed on her. It didn’t take long for Heinous to go back to normal and wake up, with the teenagers still keeping their guards up in case she tried something else.

“What happened?” Heinous still looked confused and in pain after hitting her head.

Nebula was quick with her answer. “You went all crazy and started attacking us.” Still confused at all of that. “What the hell happened there?!”

Heinous kneeled down, she couldn’t fully stand up inside there and looked ashamed of herself. “It’s… It’s not…” Every time she looked up to answer, she was met with Nebula’s stern glare, which only made her feel more ashamed of what happened. “I thought I got it under control already. I’m half monster when my emotions get the better of me, I tend to lose control.” A condition that only seemed to worsen in the past years. “But I have been working hard to keep it under control, I didn’t intend to attack you. You have to believe me!”

Not buying it, not even for a second, Aron spoke up. “As if! Can’t believe your parents send her to try to get you to move back with them.”

Heinous let out a big sigh. “They don’t know how bad it gets. Nebula, listen, what I said before was true. I want to open up a school and reform rebel princesses, teaching is my passion! That’s why I’m here, to show your parents that I can do it the right way.”

In the same mindset as her friend, Mimi answered in anger. “Don’t believe her, she tried taking you away from us!”

Being the only one to blame for that idea, Heinous tried to defend herself. “I’m sorry! I really thought that was for the best. But then you spoke about my previous school and everything then when on in there…”

Nebula cut her off. “And you lost control. You know, if you get like that with us, maybe you shouldn’t be teaching.” Fair point, Heinous could only look at the ground afterward.

Finally finding her words to answer. “I-I’m getting better at handling it… It was those memories that triggered it back there.” Such bad memories from her past life. Right there, the sound of trumpets could be heard coming from the tree house, and Heinous began to panic, hard. “Nebula, please, if your parents know what happened they’ll never let me teach again. Give me another chance!”

Trying to wipe her hands from this mess. “You don’t look in any shape to be teaching anyone, much less rebel…”

Pretty much begging now. “Then I promise to leave you alone! I’ll find another princess to teach and prove your parents that I’m not a menace.” She cleaned the tears from her face and continued. “I want to show everyone that I’m not a screw-up. I want to be able to say my name without people getting scared of me.”

That statement made it click for Nebula. “I remember now. You’re Meteora!” Now the name finally had some meaning to the Princess, she finally remembered where she heard it. “My parents told me about you a ton of years ago.” Not a lot of details she could recall, but the overall story already came back to her. Which did bring her some sympathy for her godmother. Although, Nebula still didn’t know what to do here. She looked back at her friends, still confused about all of this and angry at the woman. Then she stared at the woman in front of her, still kneeling down and begging her to help her. “Oaky, let her go.” A hard decision for the Princess but one that she will stand up for.

“What?!” Both of her friends yelled out.

“Guy, please, she already promised us to leave us alone, just go along with it.” She could see their disapproving expressions. “I’ll explain to you later, just sip it for a while.” Once the woman was freed and was able to stand up. “You’re going to tell my parents that I don’t need your classes and leave us alone like you promised.”

“Listen, I don’t know why you’re living on your own, but your parents didn’t ask me to bring you back home. I asked them if I could give you some lessons on my own.” But Nebula refused to even look at her. “I really wished everything had gone a different way, you’re my only goddaughter.” She even tried to place one hand on Nebula’s shoulder, but the Princess moved out of the way. On that last note, the group went back to the tree house where they met up with the King and his escort. 

“Hey, girls… and Aron.” That tone of his voice made the boy remember he was still wearing that dress.

“H-Hi, Mr. Diaz. Your Highness!” He tried to mask his slip up with awkward laughter. “This is just for today’s lesson, nothing more.”

Confused as to what kind of lesson would have them so roughed up and dirty. “And what were you doing in the forest?”

“One of my spells got all screwed up back there.” Nebula spoke up, trying to build up a credible lie.

That was easy to buy, and the King bought it up in full. “I’m just glad you are fine. Go back to your lessons, don’t let me interrupt you.”

“Actually…” Miss Heinous knew what she needed to say. “I don’t think your daughter needs me, or anyone else for that matter, to teach her how to be a proper princess.” The woman separated from the kids, ready to make her exit and not linger there more than they wanted. “So, yes, don’t think I need to come back here.”

“If that’s what you two want…” The King wanted to hear her daughter’s opinion.

Nebula, not knowing how to react to everything that happened and all the new information she gained, approached her godmother. “Hope to see you again.” And she hugged the woman. Heinous hugged her back, trying to hold back tears in the process. It was obvious that Aron and Mimi still didn’t understand any of this, but Nebula knew better than to let her godmother go on a bitter note.

With that dealt with, Miss Heinous retreated back to the castle with the King and Nebula was left to explain her reasoning to her friends. The teenagers went inside the tree house to rest up after the adrenaline rush died down.

“So, we almost died today, your dad probably thinks I’m some kind of creep, and that woman is free to open her school to torment other girls.” Aron, not so subtly, asked for answer with that recap.

“Aron, you’re mewman, right?” Nebula received a nod form the boy. “And Mimi, I know you’re human. Well, I’m half mewman, half human. I know it’s not as big as being half monster, but I couldn’t help putting myself in Heinous’ shoes.”

Now feeling a little bad about his comments, Aron spoke up. “But she is still crazy, you should, at least, warn your parents.”

Still looking down. “She isn’t crazy, she just needs a break in life.” That’s her opinion based on what little she could piece together from her parent’s stories about the woman. “Can’t say if it was pity or concern that drove me to that decision. But you were there too, she told us she gets like that when she loses control of her emotions, yet, she never changed when she was trapped. Maybe it’s true and she can handle it on her own.”

With the atmosphere turning so sour after Nebula’s explanation, the rest of her friends decided to drop the topic. Still, after all that mess, the teenagers needed some time to cool off.

That very night, inside the Butterfly Castle, Miss Heinous had a talk with Star and Marco. “So, there’s been no news from my mother?” It was during dinner at the table.

Star answered. “Nothing, I’ll be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about her.” It has already been too long without even a peep from the woman in question.

“How do you see our Nebula?” Marco asked.

Smiling now. “She has a good heart, a great heart. She taught me that I still have a long way to go before I reopen my school. You two should be proud.”

Relieved now, Star was the one with the most concern about letting Heinous open that school. “Thank you. She is such a good girl. And I’m happy that you can see that now.” She took a bit out of her food before continuing. “There wasn’t any problems while you were there, right?”

Quick to brush her concern off. “Of course not. I can’t speak about her magic, but the girl and her friends are the usual teenagers. Don’t think you need to worry about them too much.”

“Well, I’m sorry we couldn’t help you that much.” Marco apologized, the info about her mother was part of the reason she was there after all. “What are you going to do now?”

“I have to go back to my servants, who knows what they are up to without me to guide them.” She could only hope they were following her orders. “Also, I want to thank you for giving me this chance. Even if it didn’t go like I imagined.”

“Yeah, we pretty much forgot about that deal we made. But Nebula deserved to know her godmother.” And knowing a little more about her family might help Nebula in the future, at least, that’s what Star hoped for.

But Miss Heinous still felt ashamed of what happened, even if she couldn’t speak of it to them. “Why were you so worried about the girl, if I can ask?”

It was Marco that answered. “Just a bad feeling we‘ve been having these days. And she doesn’t have a magic tutor like Star did. You can write it off as grown-up fears.”

“She can do it,” Star spoke up, catching their attention. “She can master that wand without a tutor. She is my daughter after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't know what to do with this topic, we pretty much have so little information about Heinous at the time. Hope I did a good job.
> 
> Maybe next one will be Nebula tackling mewbert, I don't know yet.


	3. Timing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's hope I got this right!

Aron arrived at an empty tree house. Like usual, he used his scissors to appear in the great hall of the main building. But this time he looked rather nervous and a little bit panicked, it was obvious he was in a hurry, and not finding the girls anywhere didn’t help. The boy decided to run to the back of the building, maybe Nebula was busy in the fields.

Going out, he found the girls hiding behind a bush, both of them keeping silence, and their eyes looking right at the stables.

“Hey, I need…” Mimi shut him up before he could continue and Nebula signaled him to kneel down alongside them. “What’s going…” And again, Mimi shut him up.

Now whispering, Nebula explained the situation. “Look.” She signaled at the stable’s doors, wide open, and the animal standing in the middle of them. “A wild warnicorn wandered into our stable.” That was pretty much it, the girls were busy just looking at the animal in silence.

But Aron didn’t have time for this. “I really need your help here!”

The tone of his voice was loud enough for the warnicorn to take notice and book it back to the forest. “Ah! You scared it away.” Mimi looked disappointed at everything now.

Nebula spoke up. “What do you need?” Giving the boy some attention, he did look distressed.

Aron tried his best to resume everything in short words. “There’s this sculptor I need to find, and I need him today. Problem is, I can’t make contact with him. The only information my family has is what dimension his workshop is.”

“You need us to run an errand? Boring.” Mimi answered. "We have lots to do here anyway."

"You're doing nothing!" Aron pretty much blew up there. 

And Nebula tried calming him down. “We already finished everything that needed to be done here.” And it beats staying in the dimension all day with nothing to do. Now talking to Mimi. "And we will be happy to help him."

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Alright, should I gear up for a fight?”

Taken aback by her comment. “What? No. It’s just finding him and get out of there. The guy is probably passed out in an alley.” Still angry, maybe frustrated at being given this assignment, 

Something so simple there was no way something could go wrong. “Well, we are in, let’s go!”

Following Nebula’s enthusiasm, Aron pulled out his scissors and opened up a portal to their destination. “Right now is rush hour there, so once we are there don’t wander off, and be careful with…” Mimi grabbed her friends and made them all cross the portal. She thought this needed to be done fast.

The group arrived in the middle of a busy street. Beings of different races and sizes filled the area, all of them running around like they had someplace to be. The city itself was shiny, the best way to describe it. Made out of white stone and carved with exquisite detail. And more beautiful buildings could be seen in the distance, all of them with either golden roofs or statues. Still, the teenagers could only stare in awe for few seconds as the mob of people threatened to run over them, didn’t helped they were standing in the middle of the road.

Now in the safety of an alley. “The city sure is pretty.” Was the only comment Nebula could muster.

“Is on par with its rulers.” Aron signaled to a guard patrol making its rounds. “The whole city is run by sun elves, from the guards to the royal family.” They could see the castle on the horizon, huge place with tons of towers, and made to be most gorgeous place in the whole city. The guards Aron pointed at before wore white armor and carried bladed weapons. But what really stood up for the group was how pretty the guards were. Their helmets didn’t hide their faces so it wasn’t hard to appreciate how handsome they were. With their elegant aura emanating as they stroll around showing their long silver hair and staying vigilant using their dreamy blue eyes.

“Meh, I have seen hotter,” Mimi spoke up.

“Let’s check up his workshop first.” Moving around the alleyways, Aron guided them towards the last known location of this sculptor. The workshop was only a few streets down the marketplace and the boy had memorized the directions beforehand so it was easy to find the place.

But as luck would have it, while the group was walking in the alley connected to one of the city’s bars, someone was thrown out the building and into a pile of trashcans near the teenagers. That person was a goblin, shorter than any of them, with green skin, and some kind of metal eye patch on his right side. “There he is.” Aron recognized him by that eye patch. “He is the sculptor we are looking for.” The boy helped him get on his feet. “Hey, are you alright?”

A little light headed and not all there, the goblin was able to answer. “Yeah, yeah, I just run out of money to cover my tab.”

“Listen, I’m from the Metalarm clan, my father sent you a request years ago and I’m here to collect.”

Now dusting himself off. “Oh, you have my condolences. Also, I can’t deliver.”

“What do you mean you can’t deliver?!” Aron didn’t even try to hide his anger.

That yelled made echo inside the goblin’s head and he needed some seconds to recover. “I got into some trouble with the law and they closed up my shop. They also seized up all of my tools and finished work.”

The Prince face-palmed and Nebula spoke up in his place. “Well, what if we speak to the guards and ask them if you can take your artwork?” He paid for it fair and square after all.

Quick with his answer. “Wouldn’t recommend it, the Prince in charge likes his public executions. He throws everyone he can into the Coliseum, no matter how small the crime is.”

“Only one option then.” Mimi threw in his piece of mind. “We sneak into the workshop and take out whatever we came here to find.”

Aron let out a big sigh. “Can’t see another option. Let’s tread carefully.” Especially with them helping a wanted criminal. The way to the workshop was quick after that little encounter. Soon enough, their destination was in sight. Pretty standard place, covered in yellow tape to keep people from wandering in, and with a couple of guards posted by the front door. The teenagers stayed low, not wanting to be seen. “Is there any other way inside?”

The goblin gave it a quick thought, it was difficult for him to gather his ideas right there. “Just the delivery door and I’m sure that one is guarded too.”

Holding his frustration down, Aron began brainstorming some ideas. “We just need some minutes to find what we want. Can you two deal with the guards?” He decided to leave this matter to his friends.

Happy to help a friend in need, Nebula spoke up. “Sure we can. Just leave everything to Mimi and me.”

Both guards were making some light talk, not expecting trouble to come get them. From out of the alley came Nebula with a basket full of flowers. “Hello, would you like to buy some flowers?” As one of the guards picked up a couple of flowers and gave them a sniff.

As soon as that guard smelled the flowers, he fell to the ground asleep. The other guard was quick to react. But before he could restrain Nebula, Mimi came up from behind and knocked him down by hitting him on the head with a plank a wood.

With both guards down, Aron came out of the alley with the sculptor at hand. He couldn't argue with results. “Great, now, Mimi you hide the guards behind the alley, Nebula come help me inside, he doesn’t look fully awake.” Indeed, the goblin looked close to passing out there.

Luckily, the door was open and there were no guards inside. The goblin opened up the door to the basement. “Come, it should be downstairs.”

Aron nodded but spoke to Nebula before following him. “I’ll keep the scissors at hand in case something happens. Wanna check on Mimi in case…” And something weird caught his attention. “You have something in your cheek.” Just as he said that more of those little moles appeared in Nebula’s face.

Nebula created a small mirror to take a better look at herself. The Princess noticed she was sprouting little hearts colored mint green. “Oh no!” Quickly growing worried, and with more of those little hearts appearing all over her face. “I’m going to mewberty!” She put on her hood and closed it to cover her face.

“What, right now?!” The Prince knew all about this and was already cursing his bad luck. “Can’t you hold it down for a bit?!”

The Princess was already rumbling around the workshop, trying to find more clothes to cover herself with, in full panic mode. “Hold it down?! That’s not even an option here!” She found a long cloak and put it on, the hearts were already spreading all over her arms. “I can’t stay here, you need to send me back, away from all the pretty boys!” She didn’t even dare to get close to Aron.

Trying to calm the girl down. “Ok, alright, I’ll send you and Mimi back to the tree house.” Aron pulled out his scissors. “We are pretty much done here any…” Before he could finish, both the front and back door were kicked down by the city guards.

One of the guards was carrying a handcuffed Mimi. “Sorry, they got the jump on me.”

Before any of them could react. “Seize them!” Nebula and Aron tried to fight back but were quickly overrun by the guards, didn’t helped they moved faster than any of them. The guards had the teenagers in handcuffs and were able to take away the scissors and Nebula’s staff. A handful of them ran downstairs and quickly arrest the sculptor, not like he put too much of a fight. Following the rules, the guards piled the four of them in the back of a prison carriage.

In an effort to keep himself from panicking, Aron asked. “You know where are they taking us?”

“Probably to the prison, then we will get a trail, and then get our punishment with us.” The goblin answered.

“What?! All in the same day?” The Prince said while looking around the carriage in case he saw the guard that took his scissors.

“Of course, kid, we have the fastest system to prosecute criminals here. Always guilty until proven innocent and fast execution. That’s how the little prince likes it anyway.”

With no sign of his scissors. “No, we have to get out of here before any of that happens. I still need to pick my package.”

“They took my staff, Aron! I think your piece of art can wait a little bit!” Nebula yelled, still all bundled up in her seat. “Why can’t you break us out with your arm?”

Signaling to the girl to keep her voice down. “Look, I don’t know who took my scissors back there, or your wand for that matter. We can’t get out without knowing how to proceed first.”

Mimi was able to catch on to Nebula’s condition. “Is your mewberty kicking in?” She reached out to have a better look. “Wow, yeah we need to get you out of here.” The carriage suddenly went dark. A quick look outside revealed they were going through a tunnel. Seconds later, the carriage was out and they found themselves in a new part of the city, more heavily guarded, and the only people there were elves. “What’s up with the change of scenery?” This area was cleaner and way prettier than the one they just came from, even the air smelled different.

The sculptor, trying to get some shut-eye in there, answered. “The city is divided into different districts. We were into the common district before, this one is the upper district. Only elves live here.”

But the most delighted about the sight was Nebula. The Princess couldn’t stop herself from looking out of the tiny window they had inside. And it was obvious what she was looking at. “Oh my god, that boy has the cutest curls!”

“Damn, Nebula, can’t you tone it down a bit? I mean, you’re already salivating.” Mimi tried sitting her friend down. And silently thank the heavens that she wasn{t going to experience that, ever. “Want me to trade places with Aron?” Whatever can calm the girl down.

“Yes! No! I can hold it until we are out of here.” No other option for her. Nebula closed the cloak she was wearing, maybe shutting herself from the world would help. “But not too much, you have to get us out of here fast!” She gave Aron a stern look, and it drove her point home.

“Sure, don’t worry. As soon as I spot our things I’ll retrieve them.” He also tried to separate himself from the Princess as much as possible.

The rest of the ride was short-lived, and soon, the group was taken out of the carriage and underground to the castle’s catacombs. The cells there were full of prisoners, so full that it was hard for the guards to find free chains to restrain the four of them. Once they found a couple of them, and the group was chained to the walls. “You’ll receive your trail in ten to fifteen minutes.”

Aron tried asking one of the prisoners there about the wait times. “Hey, is it true? Are we really going to be seen so fast?”

The prisoner, a monster chained just like them, answered. “Yeah, most of us here already got our five minutes in front of the jury. We are just waiting for our punishments.”

Still unable to believe this kind of system. “C’mon, this many people are going to be executed at the same time? How can they even run something like this?”

“Fights in the arena. We are sent to groups and the lasts ones standing are let go.” The monster stated, calmly.

Not liking the sound of that. “Listen, they took my scissors before coming here, do you know who might have them?”

Thinking about that question, the monster even asked some other prisoners about it in case they knew more than him. “All confiscated equipment is taken to the guard’s locker rooms. But good luck getting there, you will have to get out of those…” Aron used the strength of his left arm to break off the chain that trapped him before proceeding to crush the shackle around his right wrist. “Hey… Hey! Free me too!” All the sound the boy made called the attention of the rest of the prisoners, who also began pleading for Aron to free them.

By now, Aron was breaking the sculptor free of his chains. “Are you crazy, I’m trying to sneak out of here, no way I can take all of you with me.” He moved on to free Mimi and Nebula.

But surprisingly, Nebula resisted. “No, I shouldn’t be out there. Leave me here for now.”

And Aron reacted accordingly. “No way I’m leaving you here, what if the guards return and take you?”

“Then be fast!” Nebula realized she just yelled and they all took some seconds to see if the guards hear them. Now whispering. “Grab your scissors and take us out of here. Is that simple.”

Still against the idea of leaving the girl there. “Ok, but Mimi, you stay here and look after her.” He freed Mimi out of her restraints.

“You don’t have to tell me that.” The girl sat beside Nebula.

“Alright, I’ll try to hurry back. And you stay close, I don’t want to lose sight of you.” Aron gave his orders to the sculptor, he was the reason they were in this whole predicament, to begin with. The boy proceeded to the cell door, looking both ways in case a guard happened to come by. With no guards in sight, Aron placed one of his metal fingers inside the door’s lock, breaking it open. “Just keep your heads down while I’m out.” Looking back, he could see the rest of the prisoners staring at him with puppy dog eyes. “I already told you I can’t take you with me.” When the stares didn’t die down, the boy let out an annoyed sigh. “If I promise to look for the keys, would you promise to look after them?” He received several nods in agreement, enthusiastic nods at that.

With that said, the boy and goblin proceeded to sneak out of the cell and try to find a way to the lockers. The whole place had light security, maybe the guards were busy somewhere else at the time. One problem that quickly arose was their lack of knowledge of this place, escaping the catacombs was one thing, but finding their way to their objective was another one entirely.

And Nebula didn’t have much time either, the girl was already struggling to keep herself conscious, trying to keep her mind in reality and not lose herself to her mewberty. More and more looking like a sickly person dying. “…Uuuuuuuugh…”

Mimi hugged her friend close. “What is it, you need anything?”

Pushing herself to speak. “Booooooyyyyyssssss.”

That grim tone sent shivers down the prisoners’ spines, didn’t help most of them were male. “I-Is she sick or something?”

“She is going through her mewberty,” Mimi answered. And all their cellmates recoiled back, as much as they could anyway. “Hold it down a little more, I’m sure Aron is already on his way back.”

As she said that, some of the guards approached the cell. “Alright, who wants to go next?” They took quick notice of the freed girl. “Hey, what are you doing out of your chains?!” As the guard approached them, one of the prisoners trampled the guard using his legs, making the place fill up with laughter. “You all thinks that’s funny? Wonder how much you’ll laugh when it’s your turn in the pits!”

The guard by the cell’s door spoke up. “Man, just let it go and take the girls.”

Which made the other guard protest. “But… But…”

“Listen, my wife has been nagging me about coming home too late. Let it go.” The other guard threw his hands in the air and proceeded to open Nebula’s restrains.

“Don’t touch her!” Mimi reacted loudly and attacked the guard. And this meant both guards needed to go and subdue the screaming girl before they could take them to court.

Now inside the locker’s room, Aron and his companion fall down from the ceiling. “Told you crawling around the ventilation was the fastest way here.”

But Aron ignored the goblin and began looking around for his scissors. He spotted the caged area full of chests and that gave it away. But as he was about to open the door, a pair of guards rounded the corner and the Prince had to hide inside one of the lockers alongside the sculptor. Inside there, he heard the two of them conversing. “So, are you going to be part of the coup later today?”

Another voice answered. “Nah, it’s the same time as happy hour in the lower districts.”

“Too bad, I’ll save you a spot anyway. You think the captain will notice if I take the keys to free the prisoners?”

It took some seconds before he got his answer. “Just leave them on the desk and the door unlocked, someone ought to take care of that.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Aron could hear two locker doors closing. “I gotta take position. See you tomorrow if everything goes right.” And both guards walked away in different directions.

Once he was sure they were all alone, Aron and the goblin stepped out of their hideout. “You heard that? We are in luck! The door is unlocked.” The sculptor said, now happy that their chance to get out of here alive was growing.

“Yeah, we lucked out this time. Let’s go, we still need to swing by your workshop.” The Prince rushed to the caged area and began opening chests left and right, looking for his scissors. He found a butt load of weapons and equipment, but his scissors were the only ones of its kind there. Quickly, Aron found everything the guards took away from them and the keys to the cells by the desk, just like the guards said. He proceeded to portal himself back to Nebula.

Only to find the cell devoid of both girls as soon as he arrived. “Where are they?!” He asked the rest of the prisoners.

Scared at his outburst. “The guards took them out a few minutes ago! You may still catch them at the courthouse though.”

Still angry that they didn’t keep their promise, Aron opened up just one of that prisoner’s chains and left the keys with him. “Hurry! We can take the girls and run out of here.” With no need for subtly now, Aron rushed down the hallway and began looking for any room that may be the courthouse, ignoring what little guards he found in the way.

This strategy led the boy up the castle and into a crowd gathered around the entrance of a room. The doors were open and Aron tried to squeeze through the crowd of people to take a better look inside. Luckily, this was the courthouse, and he found his friends kneeling down in the middle of the room in front of a podium that looked down on them. Nebula was busy looking down at the ground, barely in her right mind by now. So he made way to the front and spoke to Mimi. “Hey, I’m here.”.

Thankful that the boy was back. “Aron, get us out of here! Nebula won’t hold up much longer.”

“Give me a second.” The chains that bounded them were no problem for the Prince. What proved a real issue was the number of people around him, all of them trying hard to get a better place up front for the trail. It limited the boy’s movements as he tried to pull out his scissors. Culminating on the crowd pushing him back, away from his friends and any way of saving them. “Let me through, move away!”

Between his screams, a pair of trumpets began playing, and the spokesperson made a new announcement. “All raise for his Majesty. The most beautiful Prince in all dimensions…”

Those last words caught Nebula’s attention, and Mimi noticed it. “Crap!”

The back doors sprung open, with light emanating from the other side, covering said Prince in shadows. “With skin smoother than flowers petals...” And Aron began panicking in the back of the crowd. “His hair curls so blond they’re silver white…”

Nebula began looking rather expectantly. “C’mon, girl, you’re better than this.” Mimi tried to calm her down.

“I present to you, Prince Myron!” The Prince stepped out of the light, awing all of the audience with his perfect looks and sharp attire, and Nebula couldn’t take his eyes away from the boy. Once the light had died down, the Prince coughed loudly and the spokesperson checked his notes once more. “Oh yeah, he also was the most perfect pair of eyes you’ll ever see.” With that signal, the Prince finally opened his eyes, so shiny they almost blinded the crowd. This was the last drop that spilled Nebula’s glass that was her self-control, making the Princess explode in an array of green colored hearts that filled the whole castle.

Sometime later. Marco was back on Earth inside his office. The King was trying to catch a small nap in-between his appointments when he got a call right to his pocket mirror. Out popped out his daughter’s name and he answered. “Hey, sweetie, you need anything?”

But the one on the other side wasn’t Nebula. “Hi, Mr. Diaz. Your Majesty!” It was her friend Aron, and he looked quite scared, speaking in a low voice and the image in the mirror showing he was hiding behind a wall. “I can’t stay for long. Nebula is going through mewberty and we need some help dealing with it.” Some lights passed by the nearby window and the boy hit the ground.

Quick to point out. “Isn’t she in Mewni? Her mom should be there to help you out.”

And even quicker to spill the beans. “No, we are in the Kingdom of the Sun Elves. I asked her to help me out with an errand.” With the lights gone, he was able to stand up again.

Marco let out a big sigh. “Don’t worry about that now, just keep a close eye on Nebula, and don’t let her move out of the area.”

“Can do, any other tips you…” Suddenly, the lights went back towards his position and Aron was quick to panic. “She found us! Everybody run!” And the call cut out there.

Knowing how serious this had gotten. “I gotta call Star.” He had already cleared up his schedule beforehand.

At the same time, Mimi and Aron were running away from Nebula. The Princess had already trapped many victims in cocoons, all of them boys her age of course, and her friends were moving in a small group with some of the prisoners they let go earlier. The teenagers now knew they couldn’t let the girl run around without supervision and were also trying to save as many people as possible from her. Now that they gave her the slip once more, and Nebula moved on to find more boys to trap. “Think we should restrain her?”

Keeping an eye out in case of trouble, Aron answered. “Don’t think that will help us much here. Maybe we can stir her away from boys and keep this madness isolated.” At least until help arrived. Even if Mimi didn’t fully buy that option, she had to admit to run out of ideas at that point. “Let’s find some high ground.” With that said, their little group found one of the guards watchtowers and seized it up for themselves. The place had enough windows to keep an eye out in every direction and it was easy to find the Princess using them.

It was there that they were able to contemplate all the mess that Nebula caused in the upper districts. Tons of green colored cocoons littered the streets, with more webbing covering alleys and houses from head to toe. Mimi found Nebula flying around the nearby block and sprung into action. “Let’s go, we can catch up to her if we move fast.”

Aron and Mimi directed survivors to their tower along the way and were quick to cross path with Nebula, sneaking near her so she couldn’t see them. The Princess had sprouted several new arms, counting six in total, and a pair of insect-like wings. Her hair was now held in a single braid pointing up to the sky, and both eyes were glowing white spotlights, same as her marks. All of her body and clothes were a shade of green now, and every time she spoke it was in a deep tone. “Boys.” It appeared she found another group of boys to chase and trap.

Said boys were in the same direction Mimi and Aron were hiding, so when Nebula came flying towards them, she was met with a swift flick of Aron’s metal fingers right on her forehead. That little flick just staggered the Princess, Aron was trying to keep her down not harm her, and Nebula was quick to take a good look at what hit her. “Boy!”

With her attention drawn, both teenagers ran down the block and into a nearby alley, it was better to keep Nebula out of the streets now. Stirring the Princess away from the most populated areas of the city like this.

They found themselves back on the castle, now covered in that green webbing, and began climbing up one of the towers.

Now up on the last floor, and with no way to escape except for jumping out of the window, they were finally cornered by Nebula. Panicking about what might happen next, Aron could only hug Mimi close. “C’mon, Nebula, you wouldn’t do anything to your friends, right?”

With Nebula approaching ever more threatening, Mimi spoke up. “Snap out of it!” But before the girl could trap them, something outside the window caught her attention.

Quickly, Nebula began looking more enthusiastic about something and flew out the window. The teenagers, surprised at what happened, took a fast look out the window and were fast to notice the cause of their friend’s reaction. It was the elf prince, and he was making his way inside his royal carriage, followed by a group of guards. “What is he doing out there?!”

Aron jumped to action and out the window, able to catch Nebula’s legs before she could get away, and Mimi followed soon after, hanging by the boy’s waist. The added weight began dragging Nebula to the ground. “Don’t let go, we can keep her down like this.” But to their misfortune, they began flying low enough for Mimi to crash against a stone chimney, making her lose her grip on the boy.

Now it was only Aron to keep Nebula down, but he was quick to think of something. “Mimi, catch the line!” The boy shot out his fist, anchoring it to one of the roofs below, while at the same time grabbing onto Nebula with his right arm. Mimi was quick to grab the wire and pull. Only to be dragged along as Nebula flew faster towards her target.

On top of that, the elf prince noticed the girl flying in his direction. “Ah! Shoot her down, don’t let her near me!” With the guards readying their weapons, the elf prince rushed inside his carriage to escape.

Anticipating the arrows being shot at their direction, Aron threw his weight around to make Nebula dodge them. A measure that only proved effective at long distance. But with Nebula speeding up as the carriage began moving, it grew harder to dodge the arrows. That was until they felt a hard tug coming from Aron’s metal arm, keeping them from flying away. The boy looked down and saw Mimi holding the wire with the help of the prisoners and some guards. They were enough to keep Nebula in place, and making her grow angrier at being denied her prey.

But this also placed a huge strain on Aron, the boy had his right arm wrapped around Nebula’s waist while having his left arm pulled at the same time. In a way, Aron was the only thing keeping Nebula from flying off, and he knew that, so the Prince wasn’t about to let his friend go, no matter what.

In between all of that, Nebula looked down and began punching Aron in the face, trying to make him let go. “No, I won’t let you go!” The Princess tried with all of her six arms to push him out, even poking his eyes in there. “Cut it out already!” But Nebula was adamant about being let go, hitting with all her might. And she couldn’t just use her webs, that would just entangle her to the boy even more. All of that, and the pain Aron felt coming from his left shoulder, was beginning to take a toll on the boy’s body, making him slip a little bit there. But he regained focus and brought Nebula closer with his right arm. “Come back Nebula!” And Aron’s arm began to shoot out sparks from the joints.

From the ground, both teenagers could hear Mimi screaming. “Yeah, come back Nebula!” That prompted the rest of the people pulling from the wire to chant for Nebula to snap out of it, finally beginning to tug the Princess back.

But all of that was driven to a stop as soon as Aron’s metal arm snapped from the shoulder, all that force proved too much for the boy in the end. Not like Aron let the Princess go after that, in fact, both teenagers were shot forward with all the force they gathered up while being connected. Which worked wonders for the Princess, she was able to use all that extra speed to catch the elf prince, pulling him and the carriage up to the sky.

Mimi was the first one to gather herself up and could only stare at the sky as her friends flew out of sight. She couldn’t even cry out she was so shocked. “Nebula…” But as soon as she looked down, everybody could hear something falling down at a high velocity. Luckily, the carriage was already enveloped in a green cocoon, so that helped cushion their fall.

The group saw them land in the castle’s courtyard and made haste to that direction. On her way there, Mimi could see all the boys that were trapped in cocoons starting to free themselves up, with the heart marks falling to the ground.

Arriving at the courtyard, Mimi was quick to pull her friends out of the wreckage. The first one she found was Nebula. “Nebula! I’m so happy you’re alive!”

Still recovering from everything that happened to her, Nebula managed to hug her. “I’m sorry about all that. Thank you for not giving up on me!” With the scare out of the way, the Princess was quick to remember her other friend. She began moving heart marks all over trying to find Aron until she heard a grunt coming from underneath her. “I think I landed on Aron.” Indeed, the boy had cushion her fall. “I’m sorry, Aron! I broke your arm and tried to trap you, I’m so sorry!”

Both girls helped the boy sit upwards and Mimi pulled something from her pocket. “Here, I salvaged your hand.” It wasn’t much, but it was the entire hand. That was better than it could be said about the rest of the boy’s arm, which was now littering the streets in pieces.

It was a gloomy sight for Aron, but he couldn’t fault the girls, specially Nebula, for what happened. “Don’t worry, I was beginning to outgrow it anyway.” And took his hand back. “Also, here’s your stuff.” He was referring to the rest of the girls’ things that the guards took away, from their cellphones to Nebula’s staff.

Now a bit more chipper, Nebula spoke up. “Then we are all set. Let’s ditch this place already.”

But Aron looked down, his smile fading from his face. “I still need to do my errand, sorry. Where’s that goblin anyway?”

Before anyone could answer, the broken down carriage opened up and out came the elf prince. “Holy crap!” That wild ride Nebula took him sure made a mess out of his appearance, with the first people he noticed being the group of friends. “Guards! Guards! Keep that thing away from me! Guards!” When no guards came to help the desperate prince, he opted for another solution. “You! I’ll give you anything to leave my kingdom at once!”

Nebula, still confused at all of this, already knew what she wanted. “Would you forgive ours, and the goblin’s crimes, and promise to leave us alone forever?”

“Yes! He was arrested for public indecency, for crying out loud!” With that said, the prince span around and made his way inside the castle. “Guards! Guards!”

And Nebula only had one answer as she saw the prince go away. “Spoiled little brat.” The teenagers stood up and dusted themselves off. “There you have it, we only need to find that…” But before she could finish, a portal opened up next to them, with Nebula’s parents stepping out of it.

“Hi, sweetie, you’re looking good!” Her mother spoke up, making Nebula squirm in fear knowing she shouldn’t be dimension surfing like this. The Queen moved to check on her daughter, mewberty was no joke. The King took Mimi and Aron to the side to ask what happened. One quick checkup later and the Queen called Mimi to come close. “Listen, girls, I know you want to stay with your friend a little more, but we need to make a quick stop on Earth. But I promise you can talk to him all you want after the ceremony.” Both girls weren’t that disappointed at being taken away, it was that last part that confused them.

Once the King was done talking to Aron, the whole family crossed another portal to Earth and arrived in front of a medical consolatory. All four of them sat in the waiting room and Nebula just had to ask. “What are we doing here?”

“Well, going through mewberty is a big deal, and you’re also half human. We just want to make sure you’re fine after all of that.” The King answered just parental worries that’s all.

Nebula granted them that, but she was still confused about something. “And what ceremony are you talking about? Did something happened?”

Both parents looked at each other, equally confused about that question. It was Star that finally answered. “Didn’t your friend told you about it?” That look on the girl’s faces told them enough about the situation. Star took a deep breath and delivered the news. “We found out just a few hours ago through a royal invitation.” But she stopped herself right there, she needed to find the right words first. “Aron’s dad passed away during early hours of the morning. We thought you knew about it.”

The news sank down like an anchor, it did explain Aron’s behavior, and why he was so dead centered about completing this errand. But it didn’t help the girls clear up their minds, it was like they didn’t even know what to think with this new information. Why wouldn’t he say it as soon as he arrived at the tree house? Was the main question that plagued their minds. Yes, they have never talked to the man before, but they would have imagined Aron to feel comfortable sharing the news with them.

Anyway, the doctor’s appointment went out without a hitch, nothing abnormal going on with Nebula aside from the pair of wings growing on her back. After the appointment, both girls had to go back to the castle and prepare themselves for the funeral.

The whole ceremony was inside of the Metalarm Castle, the place didn’t look too different from her castle according to Nebula. The girls had to sit a few rows back from their friend’s family so they didn’t even interact with the boy. Aron himself was dressed according to the atmosphere, that of fully black clothing, but thanks to the earlier incident, his left sleeve folded up to hide his missing arm. When the time came for the casket to be carried on to its resting grounds, all four of the deceased’s sons picked it up and carried it outside. Poor Aron looked so out of place alongside his brothers, and not only cause he was the only one missing an arm. He was the youngest one there by ten years at least, with all of his brothers already grown men.

Another thing that caught the attention of the guests was the casket itself. The box was made of a metal that looked like brass, and it wasn’t the plain funeral casket from Earth. This one was carved to look akin of a sarcophagus, with the image of the king resting inside carved on the outer layer of the casket along with several more ornaments and carved runes to cover the piece. And the whole casket was massive, it looked like Aron’s father was a tall man to need such a big casket.

Once the body was laid to rest, everybody went back inside for the reception. Nebula and Mimi went along to Aron’s family to share their condolences. The only problem was that neither of them could find Aron along the crowd, even after talking to his close family, it appeared the boy vanished after the funeral. The girls spoke to Aron’s mother, a nice little lady that guided them to the boy’s room.

Both girls stood in front of that door, they could hear someone on the other side so they knew he must be there, but neither of them wanted to knock. Like they were afraid of talking with the boy for some reason. Finally, it was Nebula that opened up the door and spoke up. “Hey, are you there?” She called out but received no answer.

The girls could see Aron sitting in front of a workbench, fidgeting with some tools. Walking closer, they could see the boy was wearing a welding helmet while working on some circuits. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t hear them. Nebula placed a hand on his shoulder and the boy looked back, finally putting his work down. “Oh, hey, I didn’t hear you come in.”

With both of them worrying about him, it was no surprise the first question from Mimi was. “Are you alright?”

Aron took the mask off, revealing his dull expression, neither happy nor sad. “I’m better than I was this morning.” Silence fell on the room, with no one knowing what to say next.

What better place to ask their doubts. “Why didn’t you told us about it?”

“…” The Prince looked down, unable to find the right words for this. When he finally spoke up, it wasn’t what the girls were expecting. “Did you like the casket? My dad asked the sculptor to make it for him. That’s what he does, royals request him to make their caskets so when they die they go out in style.” But the girls didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about. “The rest of my family had everything under control while planning the funeral. So much that the only work for me was getting the casket here in time for the ceremony.” His expression suddenly changed to a sad one. “And I was only barely able to do that… Sorry about dragging you two to that errand.”

Maybe with that information Nebula was able to piece together the reason behind the boy keeping the information a secret. In truth, there was no reason for that, Aron just didn’t want to say it out loud.

Nebula stood forward and hugged his friend, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding his head. Mimi did the same, trying to console her friend. Aron didn’t need validation for his actions, and the girls didn’t need to be forgiven for almost ruining the boy’s errand. They just needed to know they had each other. It wasn’t long for them to start tearing up.

After some minutes of hugging and crying, they broke the hug and had nothing else to say. Excusing themselves out, the girls had enough for one day. But before going back, they needed to excuse themselves to the grown-ups.

Nebula’s parents were talking amongst themselves. Didn’t matter to the girls as they made a beeline towards them. “Hi, you spoke with your friend?” Asked Nebula’s dad.

Without warning, both girls hugged the man, catching him by surprise. A sight that brought a heartfelt smile to the Queen’s face. She even let them have that hug for some extra seconds. “Alright, girls, let your dad go. It’s already being a long day.” And all four of them went back to Mewni, with Nebula looking back at the hallway from where they came, still worried about her friend.

Some days later, back in the tree house. Nebula was busy taking care of her garden and Mimi was lying down in her bed. It's already been a while since Aron swung by, but they understood it.

It was there that a portal opened up and Nebula approached it. Out came Aron, looking a little bit down. "Hey, what's up?" The Princess was quick to notice something new. "Oh, a new arm, sweet."

Aron raised his arm, it looked like two metal tubes stuck to him by three joints, simpler and less extravagant than the old one. "It's the dummy arm. I'm still working on my new arm, so I have to make due with this for a while."

"I'm sure is going to be awesome." Or at least more stylish. "So, you want to do nothing inside? Mimi is already way ahead of us."

"No... Listen..." The boy looked down and scratched the back of his head. "Listen, my house has been a bit chaotic lately..." He couldn't just say it, even if he wanted to so badly. "And I know that I'm not as close a friend and Mimi..." Even Nebula looked confused at what he was trying to say.

"You want to crash here for a while?" Mimi spoke, looking at them from her window.

Nebula looked at her friend and asked. "Is that true?"

Not looking up. "Y-Yes..." So weird for him to ask for this. Moving in with his friends, all on his own. "Just for a while, until everything mellows down."

With that said, both girls smiled and Nebula answered. "Sure you can, it'll be awesome having the whole gang here." But before they could do that, Nebula readied her staff. "Stand back, this will only take a second." And the Princess shot a magic blast at the tree house, which began shaking shortly after.

From out of the girl's rooms, another section of the house was created. Similar to the first ones in appearance only a tad bigger on one side. Mimi stood up after all that shaking. "Could you at least do that when I'm not inside?!"

The teenagers on the ground chuckled a little. "That's your room, same as ours. But I gave you your own bathroom, you don't want to share ours, believe me."

Aron gave it a quick look and finally said. "Thank you, girls. I really appreciate it." Which brought a little smile to Nebula's face.

Mimi began climbing down her window to join her friends. "But we are not done yet. I say we help him move right now."

Taken by surprise. "What? Right now?" Neither of the girls looked like they were kidding. "I haven't even told my mom about this."

Nebula moved forward and grabbed the boy's scissors. "Well, what better time than now? And it'll be better if we go with you. In case your mom has questions."

As Nebula opened up a portal back to his castle, Aron let out a big sigh, and then smiled. "Alright, but let me do the talking." Not like the girls would ruin this, but he knew that her mother would be more open if it was him asking. "Also, thanks again. I promise I won't screw it up!"

His friends smiled at him and all of them crossed the portal. The girls eager to welcome their friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this, there's not a lot of ideas to work with, other than meeting up the grandparents. But if you have any other ideas, I'll love to hear them.


	4. Lunar Eclipse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two stories, a big one and a smaller one to cover one side of the family.

Today was target practice for Nebula and her friends. They had set up different kinds of targets and Aron joined Nebula at the firing range.

The first one was Aron, testing a new kind of weapon. It was an arm cannon that shot out an electric blast at the targets, exploding at impact. “That was awesome!” Screamed Nebula.

Smiling now. “Yeah, it was. But it’s still too powerful, the knockback is off the charts.” He made some mental notes for later.

Mimi chuckled hearing that. “Only you would complain about having a strong weapon.” Due to her lack of range weapons, Mimi decided to take some swings at the training dummies with her wooden club.

After a quick calibration, Aron took another shot, knocking more targets. “My turn now.” Nebula proceeded to take aim. She planted her staff on the ground and fire the first shots, hitting the targets as intended. Normal magic blasts to knock them down. But the last one to land made a bunch of roots sprout out of the target, covering it all around. “Not again.” She said, in more of an annoyed tone than a worried one.

Aron inspected his friend’s staff for a few seconds. “How come something always goes wrong with your spells?”

Nebula gave her staff some light flicks before answering. “I don’t know. Even while doing something minor it happens.”

Pondering about this issue. “Can you try turning the roots back to normal.”

Again, Nebula prepared her staff and fired at the target covered in roots. Only for the roots to start growing out and shoot out several splinters back at them. The teenagers quickly hit the floor and stayed there until the wooden splinters stopped flying in their direction. “Sorry, I just made it worse.”

As they were all standing up. “Yeah, but don’t worry, you just need to get the hang of it.” Mimi helped her friends get up and decided it was enough of target practice for the day. “Let’s get some lunch.”

And by lunch they meant pancakes. They felt like something homely and sweet so obviously, they thought of that. Only one problem arose during their preparations. “There’s not enough batter for the three of us.” Nebula looked around, she was alone in the kitchen as it was her turn to cook that day, so she decided to cheat a little bit. “Let’s magic something up.” She shot some of her magic at the batter bowl and it quickly filled up. And it kept going on and on until the bowl began to overflow with batter and spill to the floor. “Crap!”

Mimi heard her friend react and asked. “You need any help in there?”

“No! Just… A minute please!” But she quickly panicked as the batter kept flowing and she couldn’t stop it. But something weird happened after some seconds. The pancake patter began to take form, creating arms and beginning to drag itself towards the Princess.

Nebula took a few steps back and closed the door behind her, leaving her friends with puzzled expressions as they saw Nebula looking frightened.

“What the hell happened in there?” Mimi asked, and something began to pound on the kitchen door.

After another pound at the door. “I might have created a pancake batter monster.” Before any of them could react, the monster in question managed to open the door with a big swing.

All of them jumped into action, with Mimi being the first to try and attack the monster. Unluckily enough, all of her attacks swing pass the creature. “No good, I can’t hit batter!” Right there, the creature shot a stream of batter at the girl, throwing Mimi backward and into one of the tables. Nebula tried magic blasts but to no avail, they just sunk into the monster and faded away.

Quickly, the monster shot another stream of batter to incapacitate Aron and Nebula. The teenagers jumped back and helped Mimi up. “Hold it here, I know how we can beat it.” He managed to rush up the stairs and into his room.

Nebula and Mimi tried to keep the creature inside with everything they could come up with. Be it casting more spells or throwing furniture at the creature. Making a mess inside the hall, with batter getting shot all over the place.

Soon enough, Aron came back with a new arm connected to the gas tank he was carrying with his right hand. “Step back, this is going to get hot.” He began spraying fire towards the creature, covering it up from head to toe. The boy circled around trying to hit it from several sides, and the girls began putting out fires all over the place.

Finally, once the pancake batter monster stopped moving altogether, Aron stopped with the fire. All of them ended up shocked and falling to the ground, with their adrenaline levels still sky-high. “What smells so good?” Nebula asked.

It appeared the fire cooked the batter monster in place, leaving behind a huge pancake statue in the middle of the room. “I’m not even hungry anymore”. Aron spoke up while disconnecting the gas tank from his arm.

“Speak for yourself.” Mimi got up and approach the monster.

“Don’t get too close, you don’t know what might happen.” But the girl ignored Nebula’s advice.

Getting close enough to the creature, Mimi reached out a took a bite out of it. “It actually tastes good.” She proceeded to pick up a plate and a bread knife. Slicing one side of the creature to eat it up.

“You’re not really going to eat that, right?” Aron asked, looking disturbed at the sight.

Already setting up the table for her lunch. “It is a giant pancake, what else do you want to do with it?” Leaving Mimi to her lunch, Nebula and Aron began to clean the whole mess by themselves. It didn’t prove that much of a challenge for them, but it was a tedious task.

Sometime later, Nebula and Mimi were busy with one of their usual strolls around the forest. The Princess found a special mushroom growing on one of the clears. But she was adamant about picking it up. “Just do it, why would you even want it here?”

“But it’s just the one. If I take it out, more might not appear for a long while.” The mushroom in question was a small one, with a blue cap and yellow spots all over. “What if I made more with magic?”

“Nebula, remember the pancake monster. Just wait it out.” Maybe more mushrooms will sprout out after a few days.

But Nebula wanted this, and to prove she could use her wand without issues. “Relax, I’m just going to give it a little bit of magic and create a fairy ring. It’s totally more natural than creating more batter out of nowhere.”

Mimi rolled her eyes and took a step back. “Alright, give it a try.”

With a flick of her staff, Nebula sparkle some magic onto the mushroom. It took some seconds before more mushrooms grew from the ground, forming a small circle around the girls. “It worked!” Nebula exclaimed in enthusiasm.

Before they could get too comfortable, the ground beneath them started shaking before another mushroom sprouted out. This one was bigger than the rest of them, reaching over the girls’ waists. “Alright, that was unexpected, but nothing to worry about.” Nebula tried to excuse this magic hiccup.

And again, before they could get the all clear, the mushroom grew a couple of arms and pulled itself out of the ground, revealing a pair of legs. The mushroom stood there, unmoving. “You think it can talk?” Mimi moved closer to inspect the little fellow.

Out of the blue, the mushroom man punched Mimi in the stomach, knocking out all the air from inside the girl, and booked it to the forest. Nebula helped her friend recover and tried following the mushroom to catch it. The small creature ran into Aron while making his escape, but it still didn’t stop for a second, deciding to push past the boy, throwing Aron into a nearby tree.

With the girls stopping to help their friend, the mushroom was able to make its escape deeper into the forest and out of sight. “The hell was that?” The boy asked.

Now annoyed, Mimi answered. “One of Nebula’s spells gone wrong. Why don’t you ask your mom to fix your staff?”

Panic at the mere idea. “I can’t do that! She is going to worry to death.”

But Mimi was persistent. “We can’t keep going like this. I say we deal with this now before it causes a bigger problem.”

“It’s just… I can’t tell my mom I still have troubles with my magic.” She could already imagine the problems she was going to get is she did that.

“Well, let’s go to another person”. Aron suggested, getting the girls’ attention. “I mean, your mom isn’t the only magic user, right?” Nebula began to think, to really think her options over.

Remembering some old conversation, Mimi said. “Didn’t your mom had a tutor or something?”

“There is someone we can talk to. The second best after my mom. Come on.” Nebula directed their friends back to the house, they needed to pack up before they could get out. “We are going to visit my grandmother.”

Some quick packing later and the teenagers were ready to go. Nebula used the scissors to take them all to a different dimension, but they didn’t arrive at the exact place her grandmother was. Instead, the group arrived in the middle of a clear field, with grass that reached past their waist. From there on, it was only a quick hike to find some stone ruins on top of a hill.

The place looked like a castle, with several towers and both gates already destroyed. Nebula could see some vegetation already claiming parts of the ruins and it suddenly dawned on her how silent the whole place was. “Is this it?” Mimi asked the whole place looked so empty from her perspective.

Nebula checked a piece of paper and their map once more. “It should be. Let’s take a look inside.”

Walking past the outer walls and moving into the front yard, the group could finally see some signs of life. It was a small pen with chickens inside, all of them moving around the fenced area, on one side, and another pen with wooly goats on the other. The teenagers decided to enter the castle to check inside but were spotted by someone as they were walking up the castle’s steps. “Who goes there?”

The owner of that feminine voice walked up to them. It was a woman wearing a purple summer dress, gloves that reached to her elbows and a straw hat. Her hair was teal colored and she had pale looking skin. “Ugh, teenagers, you can’t squat here.”

What caught Nebula’s attention were the marks on her cheeks, a pair of red clubs. “Uhm, I’m actually looking for my grandmother, Moon?”

“Grandmother?” And the woman quickly gasped in surprise. “Don’t tell me you’re Star’s kid.” She was quick to noticed the girl’s marks and brought the Princess closer. “You have grown so big! Last time I saw you, you were the size of a peanut.” But Nebula couldn’t return the hug, she had no memory of this woman. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember me, we used to play for hours.”

Nebula separated from the woman and laughed awkwardly. “Sorry, must have been a long time ago.”

“Well, I’m Eclipsa, good to see you again.” With pleasantries out of the way. “Let’s go inside, your grandma is going to be so happy to see you.” Eclipsa guided them inside, showing her home to the teenagers as they made way through the hallways.

As the woman was speaking about whatever she used to decorate the run down hallways, Aron and Mimi whispered to their friend. “Isn’t Eclipsa your godmother’s mom? She looks so young.” Asked Aron.

To their surprise, Nebula asked. “Is she?”

Taken aback, Mimi added. “Yes… you told us about it after you let the crazy lady go. Don’t you remember?”

Nebula looked loss of words before answering. “Yeah… I think I forgot…”

Soon enough, Eclipsa brought them to the dining hall of the castle. The whole place was light up by torches and the roof was so high up it looked like a whole mansion in and out itself. Inside the hall, there was no dining table or chairs, but a lot of curtains that covered and divided different areas of the room. “Let’s go to our lab!” Eclipsa grabbed Nebula by the hand and dragged her away, with Aron and Mimi trying hard to keep up.

Crossing some of the curtains, they arrived at a small laboratory Eclipsa and Moon had set up for their work. With several pieces of equipment and chemicals on one side, shelves full with books, and a pair of desks at different sides of the room. Something noteworthy for the teenagers was that the whole place was divided by a bunch of white lines made with paint. From the tables with the equipment to the shelves with books, even the floor was divided into two sides. Eclipsa moved them to one of the desks, trying hard not to step to the other side of the lab.

“This is where we spend most of our time. We make our research and I catalog findings and the like.” The woman pulled out a book with several charts inside. Moving to the shelves. “These are my books, I don’t have much time to read but I like to keep my collection close.” But before they could move on, Eclipsa signaled to the middle of the room, with little interest. “And that’s the crack in space and time your grandma and I are studying. Let me show you my room!” Again, she grabbed Nebula by the hand, ready to walk away.

But Aron was drawn to that last statement. “Wait, what was that?”

The crack in question was kept inside a huge glass bowl resting on top of a wooden pedestal. Inside the glass bowl, the teenagers could see some kind of dimensional rupture just floating there. The tear in space shine with a white light around the edges and it was open enough for them to see a small blue vortex on the other side. “Careful with the little guy”

As she finished saying that, something jumped up towards the teenagers, scaring them a bit. It looked like a weird black liquid that could move to its own free will. And it shined like a starry night. The small thing moved around the bowl, sometimes bouncing against the glass. “What is it?” Nebula has never seen anything like this before, neither their friends for that matter.

Eclipsa got closer to them. “We still don’t know, it came from that rupture, and it doesn’t appear to need food or water to function.” The woman picked up a black blanket and covered the glass bowl. “Anyway, let’s go to the kitchen, it’s her turn to cook.”

Going out, Eclipsa took them across the hallway and down some steps before arriving at the kitchen. Again, the room was covered in white lines that divided the room in two. And by the chimney, they could see another woman preparing dinner. Which Nebula instantly recognized. “Grandma!”

Moon spun around and was caught in Nebula’s hug. The woman was dressed in casual clothing, a pair of blue pants and a sky blue blouse, also wearing gloves that reached her elbows. “Nebula! So good to see you!” The two of them sat at the dinner table. “What are you doing here? Is your mom alright?” Moon began checking the girl all around it’s been so long since she last saw her.

“She is fine, don’t worry. I just need your help with something.” Nebula took her staff out and show it to Moon. “I’m having some troubles with my magic and I thought maybe you can give me some pointers.”

Moon looked so worried. “Don’t tell me I missed your ceremony. I could have sworn it was next year.”

From the other side of the table, Eclipsa spoke up. “Troubles with your wand? You came to the right place! I’ll work this out in no time.”

Looking annoyed at the woman, Moon answered. “Excuse me? I think my granddaughter asked for my help.” And she tried to stare Eclipsa down. “Bring your wand here, sweetie.”

All of them moved to the middle of the table. Just then did they realized the whole table was also divided by a white line running down the middle of it. Moon and Eclipsa stood at opposite sides of the table while Nebula and her friends stayed by the middle. “I don’t know why, but my spells get all screwed up from time to time. Making the weirdest thing happen.”

With the staff resting on both extremes of the divided table, Moon took a quick look at the crystal. “It could be a number of things. How long since it started?”

Mimi was quick to answer. “Ever since she got her staff. It’s been crazed flowers and overgrown trees all around.”

Suddenly, Eclipsa spun the staff around, with the crystal now resting on her side of the table. “This doesn’t look broken, and I don’t think there’s anything corrupting it. Maybe the girl just needs some lessons.”

Angry, Moon turned the staff around to how it was in the first place. “That might be the case, but we should check any of those options first. You know how dangerous that could…”

Again, Eclipsa gave the staff a little spin, but she spoke to Nebula directly this time. “I tell you, just a quick holiday with us and you’ll even be able to deep down with no issue.”

Moon grunted loudly. “She is still too young for that. And don’t you think that’s a tad overkill? Let’s go over the usual troubleshooting first and worry about lessons later.”

Both women crossed eyes, trying to stare the other one down with quite the deep glares. Even Nebula and her friends ended up being part of the background as the women looked so focused on trying to intimidate the other. “Anyway, would you three like to stay for dinner?”

Coming back to life, the teenagers began helping set up the table for dinner. The food came out fast enough and they all sat down to eat. With the grown women sitting on opposite ends of the table and the teenagers by the middle. Some quick presentations later. “Please, tell us how did you find us?” Moon asked it’s been a while since they had any visitors.

Nebula took a little piece of paper from her pocket. “I found one of the letters you sent to my parents and followed the directions. It wasn’t that hard, really.” Which brought another question. “Why haven’t you sent more letters?”

Eclipsa let out a big sigh. “That’s my fault, I always forget when they pick up the mail. There’s just too much work to be done here.”

Moon was quick with her retort. “You mean a lot of work for me. You barely swing by the lab these days.”

“I’m sorry, someone has to care for the animals. Or do you not like fresh eggs and milk every day?” Eclipsa spoke up, defending herself from Moon’s accusations.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Aron asked away, trying to keep them from fighting. “Is it because of that thing in the bowl?”

Happy to answer, Eclipsa clear her throat. “That’s right. You see a few years ago those little cracks began to appear all around different dimensions, and we volunteered to investigate them.”

Moon continued the explanation. “Once we took our time investigating them, it was easy to close them up. It didn’t take long before we ended up with just the one we have here. The only problem is that we haven’t been able to close this one ever since we found it.”

As Moon took a bite of her food, Eclipsa decided to end the story. “So we decided it was better we stay here and study it. To find a way to close it for good before it can bring trouble. And sometime later, that little thing poured out of the crack, giving us a ton of questions we have no answers for.”

Hearing the story, and how much work they must have put on this. “Oh, so, are you sure you have enough time to help me? I don’t want to be a burden.”

“Of course, sweetie, we always have time for you.” Moon was quick to brush her worries away.

Eclipsa smiled before adding. “I say let’s go to the courtyard after dinner so you can show us what you got.”

With that said, the whole group rushed to finish with their food and went outside. Eclipsa had a challenge for the Princess. “Look here, this is Phoebe, the sweetest, oldest, and funniest of my goats.” She presented the group with an old goat, too busy chewing grass to look at them. “And I just cut all of her wool off. Why don’t you use your wand to bring it all back?”

Disapproving of her idea, Moon spoke up. “C’mon, Eclipsa, there must be a better way for Nebula to show her power.”

“I’m sure there is, but I’m missing a little bit of wool to make a new coat. Can you please do me this favor?” And the woman gave Nebula her biggest puppy dog eyes.

With a small chuckle, Nebula prepared her staff. “Sure, it’ll only take a second.” Ignoring her friend’s worried looks, Nebula shot a magic blast at the goat. And give the Princess some credit, the spell went wrong from the beginning. With the goat’s wool growing so much the animal ended up being a ball of wool with a head sticking out. “Sorry, sorry, I can fix it.”

But Eclipsa put the staff down. “No, don’t worry, I’ll just go get the scissors.” And she rolled the goat away.

With Eclipsa gone, Moon approached Nebula. “Maybe you’re putting too much energy into your spells. Try and keep your powers in check.”

Some quick spells, a few challenges, more observation, and it was easier for Moon to get a fair assessment of her granddaughter. She was able to determine that Eclipsa was right, Nebula only needed some lessons with them to know how to use her magic a little better. But that’s not something that could be done from one day to the other. “Nebula, why don’t you spend some time here? Think about it like a training camp.”

Having some doubts about this. “I-I… I mean… I would love to, but don’t you have your work to worry about?” A quick lesson one afternoon was a lot different than crashing with them for a few days.

“We already told you, we have all the time for you. And it’s not like we have gotten any breakthroughs in the last months.”

Nebula took her friends to the side to discuss this. “You think I should do it? It’ll mean moving out of the tree house for a while.”

Mimi answered back. “Hey, you need to master your magic, and we can hold the fort while you’re out.”

Aron also threw his two cents. “I say go for it, I’m sure your family would love to have you here.”

Nebula still had to give it some thought before going back to Moon with her answer. “Alright, just let me go back for some clothes and I’ll be happy to stay with you two.” With that said, Moon reached out to hug Nebula before the teenagers were gone back home to pack up.

In no time, Nebula had all her things ready for the stay. Some changes of clothes and a lot of underwear. They even had a place for her ready that very same day. The Princess would have to sleep with her grandmother, yes, but not a lot of rooms were stable in these old ruins, and they knew she would feel better with family close. 

The women’s rooms were on opposite sides of the ruins, and opposite sides of the divided hallway. “Here you go, sweetheart. Your own bed.” Moon placed her granddaughter’s bag on top of the extra bed inside her room.

“Thanks, grandma, I swear you won’t even notice me here.” She didn’t want to make herself a nuisance. “Hey, can I ask about the white lines?” It’s been eating up her mind ever since she saw them.

“It’s just the way Eclipsa and I relate.” Just that look from Nebula told her she needed to elaborate. “Look, we don’t hate each other, I could even say that I like her, in some way. But it’s hard to live with someone that you can’t relate to, or don't have much in common.”

Pretty easy to draw the conclusion from there. “So you divided the whole castle? Seems too much trouble to go through just for roommate issues.”

Moon granted her that, but all their work and stress that had been piled up these last months didn’t let them much choice. “It’s easier for us. Believe me, there was a ton more screaming and silence between us before we did this.” And Nebula did understand it, with her living with friends, friction was unavoidable.

And Nebula still had one question. “What about Glossarick? Last time I heard he was staying with you.” The little man didn’t even make an appearance while they were eating.

“Oh, he is here, Eclipsa is keeping him in her room. But he isn’t fully ‘present’ at the time.” Nebula looked both puzzled and worried there. “He decided to help us in our research and had to leave his body behind. It’s been a long while since he last reacted.” Moon looked out of the window and saw the starry night, letting out a big yawn. “We should rest up, tomorrow ought to be a long day.” Both of them got ready for the night and were fast asleep.

Next morning, after breakfast, all three of them were ready for some practice. Eclipsa even brought Glossarick to the courtyard. “Here she is, little man, Nebula! You remember her, right?” The blue man looked like always, blue skin, tunic, and a pink gem on the forehead. But his eyes were jet black and he was floating around unconscious, luckily Eclipsa had him tied up with a string like a balloon so he wouldn’t float away. “Oh, I thought he would react close to the magic wand.”

Brushing it off, Moon started the lesson of the day. “Alright, try throwing your staff as far as possible.” Weird setup to start with, but Nebula complied, with the staff landing some meters away from them. “Now, call it back to you.”

“Like, make it float back to me?” The Princess received no answer, just a stare from her grandmother. Nebula tired calling the staff back, reaching out with her arm and focusing hard on the task at hand, but after some minutes of nothing. “Don’t you have any pointers, or…” Before she could continue, both Eclipsa and Moon reached behind her head to stop Nebula’s staff from crashing unto her.

“That delay shouldn’t be happening.” Eclipsa relayed, thinking about the event. “Try something else. Oh! Summon something out of thin air!” Following the woman’s enthusiasm, it was hard not to with how happy she looked., Nebula tried the usual patch of flowers spell. “You work with plants?” She kneeled down the new flowers to appreciate them.

But this about more than just making flowers. “That went fine, but we still need to work on the rest of your spells. There’s a lot of potential inside of you.”

“She already makes flowers, Moon. What else do you want?” Eclipsa was already picking some of them for later. “I say we let’s help her dip down right off the bat.”

Rolling her eyes at that statement. “Did you not see how she almost hurt herself? There’s still a lot she needs to know before that.” Now speaking to Nebula. “I could tell yesterday that your staff isn’t broken, the issue is just lack of skill. But don’t worry, every Princess has had that problem in the past, one way or another.”

Nebula looked back at Eclipsa, she nodded back at her to assure her of that statement. “Well, what’s the next step?”

The three of them went back to the lessons, which consisted mostly of more spell casting and dealing with the little issues that sprung from time to time. There wasn’t anything new that hadn’t happen back at the tree house, and Nebula did end up getting more tips on how to improve.

Soon enough, lunch came upon them, and they went back inside to enjoy it. The table was filled with talk, something new on that place, and all thanks to Nebula. She already felt comfortable around the two of them, they were family so it came easy for her, and the talk mostly centered around Moon and Eclipsa’s adventures. Where their research took them all those years and the like. So apart from that, it was back to her magic lessons after lunch. And afterward, the women needed to go back to their research and Nebula to find something to do.

That was all their routine for the next couple of days. Nebula learned more spells and how to control her summoning a little bit better. All of them with their own sets of troubles that sprung as soon as she cast them. Which baffled her new housemates to no end. Yes, it takes time to master spells, but it didn’t seem like Nebula wasn’t making any mistakes with the theory, and her staff was top notch, so there really was no answer to her spells misfiring.

Yet, the Princess could only cast simple spells without anything going wrong. It went on for all her lessons and there was little improvement to be noticed. Which meant that she was still too far away before she could try dipping down.

Also, there was another issue in the household, and this one didn’t come from Nebula. “I told you to keep the bowl covered at all times!” Nebula could hear her grandmother yelling from her room. It was something that happened from time to time, all of their work brought them so much stress and the only way they could let it out was to have those screaming matches. “I wouldn’t need to if you would put up some torches!”

Deciding to get a closer look at things, Nebula exited her room and walked to the lab, silently. “Also, don’t touch my lab equipment!” The Princess could see the women fighting over a glass cup.

“That’s my glass, Moon! It’s on my side of the lab!” Eclipsa answered the accusation, not letting go of the cup.

Nebula decided to break them up by entering the room. “Hey, been a long day?” The women jumped back, with the cup landing safely on a nearby table. At least they didn’t fight when Nebula was close by.

Moon walked to her desk and answered. “Another theory didn’t work. So we are back to zero, again.”

The Princess noticed the glass bowl and approached it. “You told me before that you managed to close cracks like this before. Why can’t you do the same with this one?” The little creature jumped up towards Nebula, banging against the glass.

Eclipsa covered the glass bowl before answering. “The last cracks we found were smaller than this one. But even then, they required a lot of magical power in order to close them, more than any of us has alone.”

Nebula followed Eclipsa to her side of the lab to continue their talk. “So that’s why you decided to work together on this?”

Going back to her work, but still paying attention to the Princess. “Yes, only with our powers combined we are able to close them without issues.”

But Moon had to speak up there, she was oversimplificating the whole thing to no end. “It’s more than that. And don’t think we haven’t tried to do the same already. This crack is bigger than the ones before, we would need even more power to close it.”

“Yeah, we have tried everything we could think of. Even Glossarick tried helping us by going into trance and find the dimension where all of this comes from.” The dimension that could be seen on the other side of the crack.

And with Glossarick still being absent, it was an easy guess as to how that was going. “Why don’t we give it a try, all three of us?” Nebula threw her own idea out. Everything to keep them from fighting again.

Both women stared at the Princess in silence. With Eclipsa actually considering her idea and Moon taking notice of this. “We can’t do it, Nebula. It’ll be too dangerous for you.”

Eclipsa intervened right there. “Now, Moon. The girl has us to…”

“No, you’re taking this way too lightly.” Moon was quick to react. “We know firsthand how dangerous this can be.” The amount of focus and window for error was too big to have an amateur try it. Not like she was going to scare her granddaughter by saying that out loud.

“Then prepare me for it!” Again, Nebula had to intervene to stop a fight. Just to shy away now that she got their attention. “I-It’s just… I’m here to train, right? Pretty sure you two can prepare me for everything.” Even if her lessons haven't bared any kind of results yet.

Moon approached her granddaughter and placed one hand on her shoulder. “You don’t need to worry about us. It’s our duty to deal with this kind of stuff.”

Eclipsa understood and follow up to Moon’s comment. “Yes, sweetie. Your safety is worth every day inside these ruins.”

The Princess thought about it and came up with one conclusion. “No. I want to help you. You shouldn’t be stuck here with no hope of going back.”

Both women let out a small sigh and Moon spoke up. “Why don’t you go to sleep, sweetie? Let us talk things over between us.” Doing just that, Nebula went back to her room and waited for an answer.

Next day during practice hours, Moon had a different kind of lesson for the Princess. “Now, Nebula. I need you to create a constant stream of magic and keep it up for as long as you can.” Which seemed to puzzle the girl. “Show her, Eclipsa.”

Doing as commanded, Eclipsa placed both open palms in front of her and began to shoot out a blast of magic. This stream of magical energy was akin to lightning being shot from the woman’s hands. And Eclipsa was able to hold it strong for a couple of minutes, enough for Nebula to get the picture. “It gets easier with practice.”

Now on to the explanation. “That’s how we close the cracks. We shoot it with a ton of magical energy until we force it close. But that’s only the beginning. Sometimes you’ll need to put more force to it or hold back. Don’t worry, we will tell you when you need to adjust your magic.”

“Does this mean you’re letting me help you?!” She was so excited she was actually going to be able to help the women.

Moon calmed the girl down. “We are going to train you and see if you can handle the task. But you have to accept our final answer, understood?” Nebula nodded and they all got ready to continue the lesson. “It shouldn’t be so hard to you. You’ll be using your staff for this.”

What followed was more days of training, focusing only on this lesson. More than summoning or creating, shooting magic was easy for Nebula. The only problem that arose for her was to keep it up for long periods of time. At most, she lasted some minutes, and Moon told her the session could last almost an hour. Nonetheless, she kept practicing under their supervision until her control was top notch.

Nebula may not have all the detail about their situation, but she understood quite well that they have had enough of this place. Even her own lessons, which should have brought some fresh air into the place, were beginning to drag them down too. The Princess could see it, every time her spells misfired, it was more stress thrown towards Moon and Eclipsa thinking they were lousy teachers.

Once she was deemed strong enough, the three of them decided to give it a try. In the lab, the three women positioned themselves around the crack in space. But before they could start, Moon approached to take the glass bowl off. “What’s going to happen to the little one once we close the crack?” Nebula was speaking about the smear of space liquid that also inhabited the bowl.

The smear didn’t even react as Moon took off the glass bowl, opting to stay on the pedestal and remain unmoving. “I’m sure it’ll sense the danger and retreat back to its dimension.”

With the preparations complete, and the three of them on their positions, all of them began to charge their magic. Nebula was told to follow their lead, synchronization was important for this task, so they could all hit the crack at the same time. Once their magic was ready, three blasts of magical energy of different colors hit the target with all their might.

It was easy at first, Nebula just needed to be careful about the amount of strength she threw out. Too much and there could be an explosion in the middle of the room, too little and they’ll just be wasting their energy without making any progress. It was thanks to practice that the Princess was able to sync with the older women.

This went on for a couple of minutes until the crack began to expand and open up. But Nebula knew that was normal, according to her grandmother. The crack was going to grow in size before their magic blasts could begin to close the thing up. Right now what they needed was to crack down on the thing, blast it with more magic to subdue it. Nebula took a deep breath and fired up her magic as Eclipsa and Moon did the same.

The princess was beginning to feel tired, sweating hard and her legs feeling weak, but she kept herself strong and followed up with the task at hand. It was something she needed to do, in her mind. She could see the older women holding up much better than her and it was obvious she couldn’t ruin this for them.

Again, a new change came some minutes later, with the crack slowly closing up, getting smaller as they worked on it. “Nebula!” Eclipsa yelled at the girl, trying to be heard over the sound of magic lightning. “We need to gradually lower our strength here! Try to follow the size of the thing.” More than changing the power in a dime, slowly adjusting the strength of her blast might prove a bigger challenge for the Princess.

Nonetheless, the Princess kept herself strong and did as instructed. With more and more time passing as the crack was about to close, just a few more minutes and energy, she could hold it. The only problem was the strain. This session has been going on for more than half an hour nonstop. Nebula was beginning to feel the side effects with more intensity, barely holding herself standing by holding a tight grip on her staff. But soon enough, she was unable to keep the steady stream of magic, with her blast lowering in intensity at the last stretch and her trying with all her will to keep it going. “Eclipsa! We need to stop!” Moon yelled at her companion, they needed to stop at the same time in order to avoid an accident.

“No! I can do this!” Nebula screamed and amped up her magic, keeping up with the women once more.

But if she was still feeding energy to the crack, neither Moon nor Eclipsa could cut their blast short. “No, Nebula! Listen to me. You need to fall back, it’s too much for you.” Eclipsa tried to talk her down.

“I’m doing this, I won’t fail!” The crack was as good as close by now, surely they could see that.

Sensing Nebula was a lost cause, Moon spoke to Eclipsa directly. “At the count of three, we lower our arms and take her out of here!” And Eclipsa nodded in agreement, they both had Nebula’s wellbeing as the top priority here.

Too bad Nebula could hear them, she was right there after all. “I’ll do it myself if I have to!” With that said, Nebula lifted her staff in the air and proceeded to hit it against the floor, zapping the crack with a bigger blast, figuring she could force the thing close now that it was so small. But she did it as the other two were still shooting magic energy at the crack. The overload of energy caused a small explosion in that lab, sending the three of them flying back and hit the floor hard.

Moon and Eclipsa were quick to recover and rush to check on the girl. Nebula ended up exhausted and passed out as soon as she hit the floor, with her staff still standing on its upright position in front of her. The women took the girl to her bed and gave her a thorough examination. Luckily, Nebula was alright, not even a bruise could be seen. But Nebula wasn’t left alone, both Moon and Eclipsa made rounds to look after her in case she woke up in pain.

But there was some good news to come out of all of this. The crack was actually gone, the women were so worried about Nebula that they totally overlooked this. And the next morning, Nebula was the first one to wake up, now rested after spending all that energy. She was quickly swarmed by her family, with her grandmother asking all sorts of question to see if she was alright.

Moon ended her interrogation with. “Nebula, why did you do something so dangerous?”

Still sitting on her bed, Nebula looked down and answered. “I wanted to help you so you could go back home.”

Eclipsa threw her two cents. “Kid, we could have close that crack with the right amount of time. You didn’t need to put yourself in danger for us.”

“I know you can’t go back to Mewni until you finish up here.” Nebula opened up to them. “You two were arguing some nights ago and I overheard. Why is that?”

Knowing they were caught, both of them let out a big sigh before Eclipsa began explaining. “I’m sort of, kinda… banished from the kingdom… just a little bit.”

“It’s just a stupid rule. And the only way the Commission would think about lifting that rule was to ‘volunteer’ to this mission.” Moon added. “Before we knew it, years passed and we were stuck here with the task.”

Nebula was quick to caught on to that. “Were?”

“Oh yeah. Your little outburst closed the crack.” Eclipsa answered her doubts.

“So you can come back now!” The Princess rejoiced.

Before her grandmother tried to calm her down. “Not yet. We still need to monitor everything in case the crack reopens, pack up, and see if we can wake Glossarick up.” She handed the staff back to Nebula. “And you should go back home and have some well-needed rest.”

Taken aback by that comment. “But what about my training?”

It was Eclipsa that helped Nebula up. “You helped us a lot and we thank you for it. But you used a ton of energy back there. The lessons can take a break while we clean up here.”

“I promised you, we’ll continue as soon as we get home”. Moon reassured her granddaughter. They all packed Nebula’s things and were kind enough to let the girl use their scissors to go back home.

But before the Princess crossed the portal. “I’m so glad we saw each other again.” She hugged her grandmother tight. Eclipsa was the next one to receive a hug from the Princess. “And I’m happy that I got to meet you.”

“I hope we see each other again. Maybe we can finally help you dip down. Take care of yourself.” With that last goodbye, Nebula went back to her tree house.

As soon as she appeared inside the hall, the first thing that caught her eye was how much of a mess everything was. Broken chairs and tables all around, holes in the walls, and a lot of burnt marks littering the place. Like a really long battle took place inside there. A noise from outside also caught her attention, some screams and grunts could be heard.

Rushing outside, Nebula found both her friends fighting a group of familiar creatures. It was a group of mushroom creatures, the same color, and appearance as the one Nebula created by accident before visiting her grandmother. Aron and Mimi were doing a great work repelling the attack, and the creatures weren’t that strong, to begin with, but they were numerous. It will be only a matter of minutes before they got overrun.

“Nebula!” Mimi was the first one to notice the Princess. “Can you lend us a hand?!” While she threw another swing with her club.

“Do it fast, I’m running out of battery here.” Aron was shooting his arm canon all around, roasting some of the mushroom men into submission.

Nebula jumped into action and prepared her staff, planting it on the ground and shooting a wave of magic that enveloped all of the violent creatures in the vicinity. To everyone’s surprise, the mushrooms stood in place for a few seconds before all of them turned back into normal mushrooms, they even shrank in size as they did. “That was unexpected.” The three of them even waited a few seconds in case something bad happened out of the sudden.

With nothing going wrong, Nebula moved forward to greet her friends. Only to be tackle hugged by Mimi, throwing both of them to the ground. “I missed you so much!” It was a long time being apart.

It was Aron that helped both girls up. “And it looks like those lessons paid off. How are you feeling?”

The girls separated and Nebula answered. “I’m fine, but what was the deal with those things?”

“That mushroom thing that ran off days ago survived and spread its spores all over the forest.” Mimi kicked one of the tiny mushrooms on the ground. “They have been attacking us for a while. Pretty sure that was the last group though.”

Nebula inspected some of the mushrooms. “Well, that sure demands a venture into the forest.” It was still early, and she was feeling fine, no matter what her grandmother said. “We need to get rid of them.”

More than happy to comply, Aron and Mimi started to make their way inside the house. “If we are going right now, I should pack a fresh battery. Won’t take but a second.”

“And I just need to grab a quick snack, maybe another weapon. Want me to grab something for you?” Mimi offered.

Thinking about it, Nebula answered. “Actually, I should prepare something for the hike. We move out as soon as everyone is ready.”

And they went back inside. But Nebula stopped herself at the doorframe to stare at her staff for a few seconds. Maybe all that time spent with her grandmother and Eclipsa really pulled a miracle and fixed her magic.

Some days later and both Moon and Eclipsa were finally able to return to the castle. The women were carrying their own luggage and Glossarick was tied to Eclipsa’s wrist. As soon as the King and Queen saw them. “Mom!” Star ran towards Moon, hugging her with all her strength. “Eclipsa! Get over here!” She brought the two of them together for a group hug.

Marco smiled and approach to say hello. “It’s been a long while. I take you finished with your work?”

The adults had lunch together and Moon retold everything about their adventures as they did their research. She told them about those days Nebula stayed with them, much to their surprised. Apparently, the topic of Nebula not living with her parents never pop up during the Princess’ stay. “Oooooooh, that girl. How could she not tell me about her magic issues.” Star drank some of the wine to calm herself down.

Trying to change the topic, but making sure not to forget it, Marco asked. “What’s up with Glossarick?” He poked the floating man in the eye, getting no reaction.

“Don’t worry about him”. Eclipsa said. “I’m sure he will snap out of it in a few days.” With her food gone, Eclipsa got up to pick all of her things. “And if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on my own daughter.” She asked for Moon’s help in order to open a portal out of there.

Sensing Star was still sore about the topic, Moon tried to calm her down. “Sweetie, don’t be so harsh on your kid. In the end, it’s thanks to her that we were able to come back.” But the Queen looked like she wouldn’t let go for a while. “Anyway, I need to speak to the Commission first thing tomorrow. Eclipsa is still technically banished.” Moon excused herself back to her room, dragging Glossarick and her luggage as she walked away.

Marco dragged a chair closer to his wife. “I know how you feel, Star. Believe me, I’m going to have a stern talk with her.”

“I’m not angry, Marco.” And she took another sip of wine. “Well, yes, I am. But I’m a little sad too. I always imagined that I’ll be the one to help our daughter with her magic.”

Marco rolled her eyes and smiled. “I’m sure you can still do that. Why don’t we pay her a visit later in the week? How long since we have been stern parent, cool parent?” With Marco scolding Nebula and Star cheering her up.

Star smiled back and they shared a small kiss. “Alright, but you better let her have it. Running out of the dimension without even telling her parents. Who does that?” Which made Marco chuckle a bit, and Star totally missed that bit of irony.

********************************************************************

Time passed after Nebula’s short stay with her grandmother. In that short span of time after she came back, the results of her training were obvious. Not only did she had more control of her magic, but there were no more screw ups after she launched spells. No more awful surprises nor overgrown plants whenever she shot a magic blast. It obviously put Nebula in a great mood. She even started to use magic for simpler tasks around the house, just to prove she could.

Still, she was away from the dimension for days without telling her parents about it, so her punishment needed to be severe. Figuring out that she went out of her way to visit one grandparent, Nebula’s parents decided that it was only just that she spent some time with another grandparent. And, because her friends said nothing about it, they needed to go along for the ride.

Hence why the Princess and her friends were now on an Earth forest with all the camping equipment they could carry. The group was walking around the forest trying to find Nebula’s grandfather, he should be already set up somewhere.

For this little camping trip, Aron was wearing the newest model of metal arm he could put together for this. Filling the arm with all he could think might be useful here, as well as bringing the scissors in case something did happen. “Do you really not know where he is?” The sun was hitting them hard and they already walked a fair amount looking for the man.

Figuring camping on Earth would be like camping back home, only boring, Mimi packed the bare minimum for this trip. She didn’t even bring a weapon for their stay. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen the old man. But believe me, he is going to find us before we can even see him.”

Aron wiped the sweat from his forehead and leaned on a tree. “Can he find us a little bit faster? I hate the heat.” The boy then heard something rumbling on top of the tree. Next thing he knew, a large creature descended on him, knocking the Prince down and letting out a huge scream.

“Grandpa!” Nebula screamed in joy as she ran to hug the man. Mimi did the same, happy to see him again.

Nebula’s grandfather wasn’t a tall man, barely taller than the teenagers, but his muscular built was nothing to mock. Totally bald, a full beard that reached to his waist, and without any article of clothing covering his body aside for a loincloth made out of leaves. “Girls! So good to see you.” He could hear the animal he caught weeping and looked down. Only to notice that wasn’t an animal disturbing his territory, but a teenage boy. “Sorry, boy. I thought you were food.” And finally got off him.

While helping her friend dust off, Nebula asked. “Let’s find a place to set up the tents.”

Quick to answer. “Nonsense! We can find a perfectly good tree to rest.”

“Uhm… I mean that’s cool and all. But I’m sure we can rest better our way.” She was a little taken aback, being honest, this would be Nebula’s first camping trip with the old man.

River shrugged. “Well, if that’s what you prefer. We can do it your way.”

Soon enough, the group found a small clearance close to a stream so they could set up camp. It didn’t take long for the camp to be ready, they even set up a small fire pit to keep themselves warm. “Alright, we only need to hunt for food. Don’t worry, I already made the spears.” The man pulled out a couple of spears made out of stone and wood.

Again surprised at River’s attitude, he looked awfully enthusiastic about this. “Listen, grandpa, we brought food with us. From sweets to meat, we don’t need to hunt.” Her grandfather’s reaction this time was different. The man was saddened at being declined.

That ended quickly when Mimi approached the old man and took one of the spears and inspecting it for a few seconds. As a follow-up, Mimi threw the spear at the nearby stream. “We could use them to fish. Isn’t camping supposed to be all about surviving out of nature?” The other half of the group had no answer for that comment. Nonetheless, that day they cook the food they brought.

With all of them sitting around the fire while enjoying some early dinner, Nebula spoke to her grandmother. “How’s everything, is grandma fine?”

“Of course she is. Settling fine with retirement. I’ve missed her so much that not even partying could soothe my heart.” A little too much information, but that’s to be expected with so much time separated from his wife. “But I’ll always be ready whenever my granddaughter wants to go on a camping trip.” He brought the girl closer to pat her head.

“So, what do you want to do? We can go explore the forest, observe the local birds, take some pictures.” Nebula tried throwing everything she enjoyed of nature, hoping something will stick.

River looked pensive for a second, trying to come up with something. “I’ll think about it. But be sure I’ll have something we can all enjoy.” Fair enough, this was their first day together in a while.

Some hours later after finishing the last touches on their camp and it was time to sleep. The girls were about ready to retreat inside their tent before they saw the old man getting comfortable by the fire, on the dirt, and without anything to cover himself. Nebula whispered to her friend. “Aron, you think my grandpa can sleep in your tent?”

With a blank expression on his face, he wasn’t about to say no, but he’ll prefer otherwise at the moment. Still, Aron let out a big sigh and said. “Hey, Mr. Johansen. Why don’t you come inside? It ought to get cold soon.”

The man stood up, happy to comply. “More than thankful, boy.” Good thing Aron brought the big tent for the stay. Although, the night didn’t go that smooth for the boy. At first, he got some peaceful sleep with no issues, but as the night went on, River began to snore so loud he kept the boy awake for hours. Not counting all the movement he did as he slept, it was awful for Aron.

Morning couldn’t come faster. Almost all of them awoken with no issues, only needing to stretch as they crawled out of their tents. And then the girls saw Aron and those heavy eye bags he was sporting. “Woah, what happened to you?” Asked Mimi.

After yawning loudly. “Grandpa happened. He kept me awake all night with his snores.”

“I’m sorry. Why don’t you snooze off a while longer?” Nebula said in a worried tone.

But her friend shook his head. “No, I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m hungry.” It was another meal coming out of the food they brought along.

River had the perfect idea for a morning activity. Hiking all the way up the nearby mountain range. At first, it sounded like it might be fun, but as time went on, that feeling died down quite fast. Not like it mattered to grandpa, he didn’t even seem to be that bothered by the activity. “C’mon, kids. I used to hike mountains like this back in my day. Although, a little faster I’ll grant you.”

At the little cliff, he found to rest, the man could see Nebula and Aron still struggling to climb up. To his surprise, Mimi moved from his back to help the teenagers up before he could. “Yes, guys. Step up.”

Sometime later and the group was finally able to climb all the way up. Maybe it was all worth it just to for the view of the forest, or maybe it was some kind of bonding experience grandpa River wanted to do with his granddaughter. It didn’t look like either of those guesses though. As soon as River caught his second wind. “Let’s go, everyone, the way back is a long one.” All of the teenagers grunted and made the climb back down.

By the time they made it back to the camp, the sun was about to set. In the end, this whole day was a long walk around the forest. Something that wouldn’t usually bother the group, but it was making the walk with River that made it tougher for them, even for Mimi, and she was the one that actually kept up with the man.

After they ate, it was bedtime for them. And Aron wasn’t about to repeat the same mistakes as yesterday, speaking to his friends in secret. “Nebula, I’m not sleeping with your grandfather again.”

Nebula moved to the defensive. “I know it’s difficult, but we can’t let him sleep outside.”

“I’m not saying that. But I’m sleeping with you two tonight.” Just one look at their faces and he could see that they weren’t that up for the idea. “C’mon, I need a good night sleep, he hasn’t even bathed for crying out loud.”

Nebula let out a small sigh. “Alright. We will be a little cramped though.”

So they all piled up inside the tents, River not giving a second thought to getting one tent for himself. Inside of the girls’ tent, it was Aron and Nebula separated by Mimi who slept in the middle. “So, your granddad is a little… intense.” For lack of a better word.

“He is just a little bit annoying, that’s all.” Mimi intervened. “No brainer why this is our punishment.”

Staring at the roof of their tent. “Just a few more days, guys. Bare it with me for a little while.” They all were resigned to their fate and went to sleep.

The following day, the group separated after breakfast, each one decided to set something for later that day. River went out the camp to find some other place they could hike or something they could hunt. Mimi running around the forest to do some foraging, and both Aron and Nebula staying in the camp, they had enough walking yesterday.

Some hours after that and it was Mimi that came back first, with a huge smile on her face. “Nebula, look what I found!” She signaled to the forest entrance, where a shadowy figured approached them.

Nebula saw this figure and her eyes lit up with happiness. “Bear!” The Princess skipped towards the animal, a full-grown brown bear. Nebula gave the bear a tight hug around its neck, burying her face in its fur. The bear let itself be hug and actually sat down in their camp.

The sight brought a smile to the Prince. “You sure like bears.” First time he heard that.

The Princess was still hugging the animal as it sat there looking around. “Bears are my favorite animals of all time. And she is the cutest one I have seen.” Mimi passed along some of their food for the animal to eat.

“Are you sure we should do that?” Something about not feeding the bears crossed the boy’s mind.

Mimi sputtered. “Bears love us, or at least Nebula.”

Something about food and having a bear at hand gave Nebula a great idea. “Let’s go fishing!” She grabbed the bear by the claw and began dragging her to the stream. “C’mon, teach me how to catch fish.”

Only for grandpa River to jump from the tree line and on top of the bear. The man was trying to wrestle the animal into submission, and, thanks to the element of surprise, he was winning. Holding the bear down with his best grapple. “Don’t think you can just waltz in here while I’m out!” The sight horrified Nebula, who made a fast motion to grab her staff. The Princess shot a blast of magic towards the nearby trees, making the branches move and restrain the old man. Which shocked the man to no end, more so after seeing the teenagers rushing towards the animal. “I thought you were in danger.”

“She just wandered in, that’s no reason to attack her.” Her new friend let out a growl of pain. “Are you alright, Mrs. Bear?” Another pained growl. “Yeah, kind of a stupid question to ask.” The teenagers helped her get up and Nebula proceeded to let her grandfather down. “Besides, granddad, I don’t fight animals or anything peaceful for that matter.”

The rest of the group made their way to the water, leaving the family members to speak amongst themselves. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I just leaped into action…”

Nebula cut him off. “I get it, I really do. But, listen, you might want to tone it down while we are here.”

Looking totally lost. “What are you talking about?”

“You know, the whole survival thing. We are here to relax, not to fight bears and hike from morning to sunset.” She got the trees to put the old man down.

Looking down. “It wasn’t my intention. I’m just trying to have a good time with you.”

Nebula let out a big sigh. “We can do that, but I’m not into enjoying nature that way.” She wasn’t like her mom in that regard. Which made another thought pop into her mind. One thing she might not have considered.

“Maybe I was blinded by my nostalgia.” He just missed all the time he and his daughter spent together out camping. “If you want we can go back later today.”

“I’m not saying that.” She let out a small chuckle. “But, if we already tried your way of camping, maybe you’re willing to give my way a try. See if you enjoy it just as much.”

Her way started by going to the stream and fish out their lunch bear-style. It was as close as hunting as they’ll get, but they were all happy to do it nonetheless. From there, they moved to a short scavenging hunt, or simple foraging depending on how you saw it. That was the fastest way nebula could think of to give grandpa River a detailed look at the forest. From then on, it was the usual stuff one does around a campfire, singing some familiar songs and eating junk food. All in all, it was a different way of camping that River much enjoyed. Not fighting nature but actually sitting back and enjoying it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the upside, I finally have a narrative this story can follow :O.


	5. Passing Time.

Today was a snow day on Mewni. The snowstorm had already died down a few hours ago leaving a thick layer of white snow behind. With the temperature outside so low, the teenagers decided to stay inside their tree house where they had a chimney and a pile of firewood ready to be used.

They had all of that, but the one thing they were missing was something to entertain themselves. Bored of all the games they had inside, and all their work already dealt with, the group was left with nothing but sit around the hall and do nothing.

Nebula and Mimi were sitting at the bar, resting their heads on the counter in boredom. “Is it ready?” Mimi screamed at her friend in the kitchen.

Aron came out of the kitchen, carrying a steaming pot with both hands while wearing a white apron and chef cap. “It’s done, pass your bowls.” It was the boy’s turn to cook, and he opted for some hot ramen.

The girls did as instructed and were served their food, which they proceeded to enjoy. The Prince did cook some good lunch, and it smelled amazing, so they could at least eat the boredom away for a few minutes.

But something happened while they were enjoying their food. It was light at first, and easily brush away, but as time went on, they couldn’t deny what was happening. The very ground was shaking. In a weird manner too. The shaking will come hard and start again less than a second later. It wasn’t continuous shaking like a normal earthquake would do. Then, as they began to get stronger, it suddenly stopped. And they could hear someone call them from the outside. “Hello, is someone there?” Before a loud knock rumbled the whole place.

That voice was a deep one, obviously masculine, and the tone clued them in on what kind of figure was outside, a big person most likely. The teenagers picked up their jackets and sweaters before rushing outside to confront that person.

To their surprise, it wasn’t just one person but three, and it wasn’t a normal person as they were expecting, but three giants standing taller than their own house. The giants all sported scruffy beards, thick with black hair, their skin a light blue like icy water, and dressing on flannel shirts with red and black squared designs. Along with winter caps, winter jeans with suspenders, and brown boots for the snow. Moving aside from their appearance, the teenagers also took notice of the tools they were carrying, woodcutter axes, on par with their size.

The giant closer to them, wearing a red cap, kneeled down and spoke to the surprised teenagers. “Hello, short friends. I’m Yuri and these are my brothers.” He spoke in a deep tone, cluing them in that this was the one that called to them before and reached out to greet them with a handshake.

Nebula, still scared and surprised, extended her arm to greet him. “I’m… I’m Nebula. They are my friends, Aron and Mimi, we own this tree house.”

Yuri smiled at them. “Nice to meet you three. See, my brothers and I were making our way out of the forest when we caught a delicious smell coming out of your home.”

“Oh, yeah, were where just having lunch inside.” Nebula reacted, speaking without thinking.

“Yes, if it’s not too much to ask. Would you be so kind to share some of your food with some hungry travelers?” He spoke politely.

“Weeeeeell…” Nebula began pondering about the idea while looking back at her friends. The other teenagers shrug, not knowing what to do. “I mean…” No way they had enough to fill one of them, much less the three of them. “I’m pretty sure we can put something together for you.”

And that they did, it came easy thanks to Nebula’s magic. First, the Princess created an enormous bone fire outside to cook everything, then, she made a giant metal pot. Inside the pot, Nebula summoned a torrent of water to fill it up and, with the guidance of Aron, she created giant versions of the ingredients they needed to make the ramen. From the spices to give taste, the vegetables to fill them up, and the mile-long noodles, they were able to recreate the small lunch Aron made for them into a gigantic version for their three guests.

The giants sat around the pot, sometimes stirring the water as they were told, but mostly stayed put and made small talk with their hosts. “We didn’t catch up all your names.”

Answering the Prince’s question, Yuri signaled to the brother to his right, wearing a green cap. “He is my eldest, Mikhail.” The giant bowed his head to them. He then signaled to the giant wearing the blue cap to his left. The one Mimi had already befriended. “And the youngest, Oleg.”

“What are you doing so far from the mountains?” Nebula asked while checking on the food.

Oleg was the one that answered, still playing with Mimi as the girl tried climbing up to the top of his head. “We are lumberjacks, miss. This is a trip to gather some lumber and bring it home.” The same reason they brought the axes too.

Happy with that answer, the teenagers continued with their task until the food was done. The Giants got the food they asked for and the teenagers kept them company as they ate. That lunch was enough to warm the giants’ bellies as well as fill them up. “Alright, now with our stomachs full…” Yuri got up and grabbed a hold of his ax. “It’s time to do some work.”

Yuri held his ax with both hands and gave the nearby tree line a wide swing. A swing strong enough to cut all the trees at ax’s range, leaving only the trunks resting on the ground, with the trees falling on the ground seconds after, making the ground shake as they did so.

A sight that only brought horror to Nebula’s eyes. “What are you doing?!” She rushed to stop the giant from taking another swing at her forest. “You can’t cut down the forest!”

Yuri was taken aback by that. “Miss, we are lumberjacks, that’s what we do.” He tried picking up the girl but Nebula held a tight grip on his leg, not wanting to let go.

“No! You can’t cut down our forest, I won’t let you!” Nebula held firm with that statement.

Mimi, now resting on Oleg’s head, spoke to her new friend. “Do you really need to cut down this area?”

Oleg, gently, picked Mimi with one hand and let her down before standing next to his brother. “It’s our work, friends. We are lumberjacks after all. All of these trees will be coming with us.” The oldest one, Mikhail, joined his brothers, standing together to prove they won’t back down.

“Then, I’ll fight you for it!” Nebula screamed, shocking everyone around them.

“Nebula, I’m sure you don’t really mean that.” Aron tried to calm his friend down. “Can’t we just talk about this?” He referred to the whole group, maybe a peaceful resolution could be reached.

Yuri, again, kneeled down in front of the teenagers. “I’m sorry, but this is our work. But if you were speaking the truth about fighting us…”

“I am!” Nebula screamed, trying to stare him down.

The giant regained his composure and continued. “Then we accept your challenge. It will be a one on one fight. Each group will bring their best fighter to the ring and we will duck it out for the right to cut down the forest. That is the way of the lumberjack.”

Before her friends could say anything, Nebula accepted. “We will see you there! My fighter is going to wipe the floor with yours!”

Accepting the challenge. “Fine, we will set everything up for tonight, if you don’t show up it’s an instant win for us. Keep that in mind.” Yuri signaled his brothers to move out and the three giants made their way out, they needed to set everything up for the match.

With things quiet enough to speak, Aron did so. “Nebula, are you crazy?! We don’t even have a fighter.”

Nebula held her temples with both hands, trying to calm her nerves down. “I know, but I can’t let them cut the whole forest down.” She was able to finally let out a big sigh, calming her down. Enough to actually start thinking about how they could solve their problem. “Alright, let’s think. Who can fight for us?”

They all stood there, brainstorming ideas, and coming up with nothing that could aid them. “Aron, does your family have some sort of giant robot suit we could use?” Mimi asked after some time thinking.

Aron looked at her, blinking a few times before answering. “I can’t confirm nor deny that.”

Confused, Mimi asked. “What?”

Nebula was quick to brush that off. “It means he can’t help us. Guys, think, there must be someone big enough to fight them.” Either they found a fighter that could stand shoulder to shoulder against the Giants or one of them would have to step into the ring.

Soon enough, it was night, and word had gone around about this fight. From the peasants of the Butterfly Kingdom to the monsters of the forest, all of them flock to the area. It helped that the giants made a ruckus clearing the patch of forest for the arena. Some people even helped them to make this a proper fight night, apparently, Nebula and her friends weren’t the only ones bored today. That clearance in the forest became a proper outside arena, with grandstands for the viewers, lights, and food vendors to make some money out of the event.

Like a proper match, the audience was anxious for the fight to start, and everyone went silent as the referee walked to the center of the ring. The referee, a young woman with purple pigtails and wearing a metal helmet, cleared her throat and used a megaphone to speak. “Welcome this night to the fight for the forest!” After all the cheering died down. “In the blue corner, we have the oldest of the Lumberjack Bothers, Mikhail!” The lights shined on the group, with Mikhail standing tall and shirtless, showing his muscular built to everyone. The giants hopped into the arena, with their fighter approaching the center and the two cornermen moving aside.

Around the grandstands, some towers were set up for royals to get a better look at the fight from way up. In one of those towers sat Nebula’s parents, well, one of them, with the other one arriving quickly after with all the food he bought. “Here’s the nachos, and your drink.” Marco handed the food to Star, keeping another drink and some popcorn to himself.

“Thank you.” After she took some sips of her drink. “You think Nebula has a chance?”

“She is resourceful, I’m sure she and her friends can come up with something.” It was only a matter of waiting and see how things turn up.

The referee took another deep breath to announce the challengers. “In the red corner, we have…” She read a little piece of paper to make sure she got the name right. “The Defender of the Forest, Oaky!” Coming from out of the forest was the giant tree golem that Nebula had created. Oaky walked straight whit the teenagers sitting on his shoulders as he approached the arena.

Nebula and her friends climbed down before the fighters could meet at the center of the ring. Oaky was a couple of meters shorter than the giant, but its stoic expression showed no fear. “Bah, I have never met a tree that I couldn’t cut down.” But Oaky said nothing back, which only angered the giant.

Now using a large stepping ladder, the referee was able to meet the fighters at eye level. “I want a clean fight. No dirty tricks, weapons, magic, curses, and the like. Understood?!” Both of them nodded. “Alright, as soon as I get down from here, I’ll give you the signal to start.” She rushed down, picked up the ladder, and got out of the arena. “Fight!”

The giant was the first one to attack, he started with some quick jabs at the enemy’s face. It took some screams from the teenagers for the golem to react and start fighting back. Oaky took a big swing at the enemy to push him back to gain some breathing room. Next thing the golem did was attack with a flurry of body shots against the giant. The fight carried on like this, with both combatants trading blows and each one receiving their fair amount of damage. After three minutes of this, the bell rang, signaling the fighters to separate and go back to their corners.

With Mikhail sitting down on his stool, with his brothers surrounding him to check on him, Oaky did the same, with Nebula resting a ladder next to it so she could speak to her golem face to face. Mimi and Aron used a collection of skyline ladders to move around Oaky’s body in case some wounds needed to be treated. “That was a nice round. But you need to be faster, being sluggish is going to get you killed!”

“Nothing around here, Nebula!” Mimi screamed, done checking for cracks.

Smiling now. “Alright, go and show him your moves, bring him down!” The bell rang once more and the fighters had to go back to the arena.

Again, Mikhail moved to the offensive, but he was up for a big surprise. Oaky was quick to grab the giant’s arm and use it as support to jump up and wrap its legs around his neck. The tree was trying to subdue the giant with a leg hold, tightening the grip so much it was starting to cut Mikhail’s air supply. To counter this, the giant used all his might to stay on two legs, he needed that support for his next move. Next, Mikhail used his arms to pick up the tree as much as he could, before he slammed Oaky onto the ground with a loud crash. That made Oaky loosen the grip and freeing the giant. But, again, the bell rang and the fighters had to separate.

Oaky came out alright after that exchange, they had taken the giants by surprise, who could have guessed a tree was that agile, to begin with. But that also clued the giants in about this situation, that they shouldn’t mess around in this fight.

Third round and Mikhail started strong, keeping his distance and keeping an eye out in case the tree tried another grapple. True to his guess, Oaky rushed forward and grabbed Mikhail by the wait. But that didn’t keep the giant down, he raised both fists up in the air and let them fall down on top of Oaky’s back. The blow was strong enough to throw Oaky to his knees and Mikhail took advantage of this by grabbing the tree’s waist and throwing him into a suplex. Having his opponent pinned down, the giant missed no time letting it have it. With punch after punch raining down on poor Oaky until the bell rang once more.

The tree had some troubles getting up, and the teenagers began running around to treat their fighter’s wounds. With Nebula looking more and more worried as she saw everything that happened in the arena. “You can do it Oaky! Hang in there, just a little bit longer.”

“All this sap keeps coming out!” Aron screamed by Oaky’s side.

“Wax it up, you need to close the wound!” Nebula yelled at him.

Next was Mimi, trying to glue some of its bark together. “Almost all the bark is gone, and I’m running out of duct tape.”

“Focus on the bigger holes!” Now to her fighter. “You have to go for the knockout, there’s no other way.”

They soon needed to retreat back and Oaky walked to the center of the arena to fight back. No more grapples but full fledge punches being thrown around. They’ll connect jabs and uppercuts while also receiving their fair share of damage as the fight dragged on. Oaky lost bark and branches while more cracks appeared along its body. Mikhail ended up sporting some small cuts around his face and bruises too. At the end of the round, both combatants looked more wounded and tired than before, even Oaky couldn’t keep its eyes away from the ground.

Mikhail was short of breath at the moment, with almost all his strength gone. “That’s one thought tree.” His brothers were cleaning his sweat and wiping away the blood. “But I’ll bring him down in the next round.”

The final round, according to Mikhail, and it went like the one before. Blow after blow was traded, with the giant waiting for the chance to strike. That moment came after Oaky took a big swing at his opponent and the giant took the chance to counter it at the last second. The counter took everything from Oaky, dropping him to the ground completely motionless. With the referee starting the countdown. “Get up!” Aron yelled from the sidelines. “You have to get up!”

“Get up you overgrown splinter!” Mimi joined in, anything that might wake the golem up.

Suddenly, Oaky revived, jumping back up and ready to continue fighting, much to its opponent’s surprise. Anyway, the fight resumed, with just some short seconds left on the clock. Both sides knowing neither of them would have enough energy to keep the fight going for another round.

It all finally ended when Oaky got a lucky shot at the enemy’s head. Throwing Mikhail backward. Like the golem before, the referee began the countdown, and the giant was still conscious enough to try and get up. Sadly, Mikhail was only able to get on his knees before falling down once again, just as the count reached zero.

Declaring the fight over and the audience cheering all around the stands. “We have a winner. The forest will be left untouched!” The referee announced, with the teenagers rushing to greet their champion. And the audience went crazy once again, with some of them approaching the winner to greet it personally. The fight soon erupted into a full-fledged party, with everyone celebrating the results, even the giants joined in, no hard feeling after all.

The next day, after the three giant brothers had departed, the teenagers took Oaky back to the fields. They had dug a big hole for the golem to plant its roots and have some well-deserved rest. Oaky spread his roots and the teenagers began filling up the holes.

“You were amazing, Oaky! You truly are the best tree there has ever been.” Mimi hugged the tree after their work was done.

“Yeah, we would have been lost without you. Thanks.” And Aron gave him a small fist bump.

With her friends gone, it was Nebula’s turn to say goodbye. “We sure showed them. Hope you can rest peacefully.” That should be easy, it was a peaceful forest after all. But Nebula noticed Oaky looking down at her. “What?” She was quick to caught on and sputtered. “Don’t worry, nobody noticed me using my staff. And I wasn’t about to let him win.” She admitted it was cheating, but Nebula was fine with it. And it looked like Oaky was too, as he turned to look up to the sun and did nothing else. “Alright, hope you don’t have a harsh winter, and if you need anything just yell.” The Princess finally went back home, maybe she could find something for them to do inside today.

*************************************************************************

Right now it was morning, Star was sleeping on her bed at the castle. She has had a couple of long days keeping up with her training and taking care of her toddler. It was obvious the Princess was going to have a hard time waking up. That was until she heard some light steps coming in, followed up by some sounds coming from her drawers. Star slowly opened up her eyes to find a small brown bulge running its tiny hands inside the lower drawer.

Star let out a yawn and yelled for her boyfriend. “Marco, a little bear is raiding my drawers!” Her yelling caught the attention of the bear cub, turning its head towards the Princess. “Oh. Don’t worry, it’s just Nebula in her bear pajamas.” Spotting her mother, Nebula picked some of the garments and brought them to the bead, handing them to Star. “Yes, these are mine, thanks.” She smiled and reached out for her. “Come here.”

The Princess let the toddler down by the pillows, sitting her down as Marco finally came back from the bathroom. “Nebula woke you up?” He was still in his pajamas and sat down on the bed with the girls, keeping Nebula in the middle of her parents. “Are you hungry?” Nebula stood up and walked towards her father, grabbing him by the cheeks and pressing them together. Which made both parents smile.

As Nebula kept slapping Marco’s face and trying to babble some words, Star chuckle and said. “Someone sure likes to play with daddy.”

Again, Nebula looked back at her mom after she spoke, before going back to looking at her dad. The toddler let Marco’s face go and stood on the bed, biting her lower lip for a few seconds. “Pah…” She was trying to put words together. “Dah!” Again, she reached out to Marco, hugging him this time. “Dah!” She kept at it, saying it over and over.

Fascinated by that. “You are her first words!” Star said with a smile on her face.

Marco was also happy at this, hugging the kid back. “Can you say, mommy?” And he pointed at Star.

Nebula separated from Marco and tried to reach out to Star, only to fall on her knees as she tried taking some steps. Still, Nebula placed one hand on Star’s cheek, just over her heart mark, and said. “Mah!” That was good enough for Star, she was so filled with joy that she could only pick Nebula up and hug her close, giving her some well-deserved kisses.

Only for Star to actually wake up this time. She had dozed off on her throne even though she just wanted to rest eyes for just a few seconds. Good thing nobody noticed.

Marco entered the room alone and noticed Star looking down. “Hey, you fall asleep on the throne again?”

No point in denying it then. “I was dreaming about Nebula’s first words”

Sitting down beside her, Marco spoke up. “Those were good times.” He was quick to notice Star’s attitude, obviously feeling down. “What is it? You feeling nostalgic?”

Star let out a small sigh. “A little bit… Are you free?”

Surprised at the question. “Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“I want to see Nebula. You think she is busy?” Star was quick to answer.

Thinking about it for a few seconds. “I’m sure we can drop by. C’mon, let’s pay her a quick visit.” Marco got up and helped Star do the same. It’ll take only minutes to gather the carriage and much less to arrive at Nebula’s home.

In the forest, Nebula and her friends were in their backyard, more specifically, in the gardens. Nebula and Mimi were fixing some planks for their new plants while Aron checked on his own harvest. “Come on!” The Prince yelled.

Which made the girls see what was wrong. “What happened?” Mimi asked. They noticed Aron’s little space for his own vegetables all empty, with just a little mound of mud near the boy’s feet.

Aron buried his hand in the mud and pulled out a couple of seeds. “The giants from last week gave me these magic beans and I’m trying to make them sprout.” He’s been taking care of them for a week now and nothing. “What am I doing wrong?”

Nebula took the little beans and gave them a quick look. “These beans are dead.”

Surprised at that. “What do you mean by that?! Why would the Giants give me a bunch of dead beans, to begin with?”

“I don’t know, maybe they were just pranking you. But they won’t be growing any time soon.” She gave the beans back and was about to return to her work.

Not wanting to let go. “Can’t you fix them with your magic?”

But that was out of the question. “Aron, I can’t bring back the dead, that will be… wrong. Even if it just for beans.”

But Aron was adamant about this, cutting in front of the Princess. “Alright, what about time magic?” Which seemed to catch her attention. “Don’t revive the beans, send them back in time when they were healthy.”

The idea sounded fine enough for Nebula to consider it. “Fine, but only because I can’t see anything wrong coming out of it.” And she wanted to see if she could actually make time magic work.

Aron let the beans rest on the ground uncovered, then, he and Mimi took cover behind Nebula as the Princess planted her staff on the ground. She was quick to clear her mind and gather energy on the tip of her staff.

But before Nebula could take the shot, the sound of trumpets playing took them all by surprise, making Nebula curve her staff up and the blast got send flying inside the house. The blast would ricochet against everything inside the hall before going back outside through the open window. Nebula and her friends were only able to arrive as the blast entered her parents’ carriage through the wide-open doors.

Panicked at the sight, Nebula ran towards the carriage. “Mom, dad, are you ok!?” With all the smoke rising obstructing the view, it was hard to determine their state.

The teenagers could only hear some coughing as the King and Queen exited the carriage, trying to wipe away all the smoke that surrounded them. “What the hell was that?” They could hear a boy’s voice, one so unfamiliar to them. “Why do I sound like a kid?!”

With the smoke finally clearing, Nebula could see her parents, and how the spell affected them. Both of them were teenagers, about the same height as Nebula now, with their clothes also shrinking with them too. Star was the first one to figure what happened to them. “Marco, you look so young!” Even their voices had changed. Another look at her husband and Star had another comment to say. “Aw, I forgot how cute you were when I met you.” Somehow, that warranted a blush from Marco.

In between her parents checking themselves, Nebula rushed towards them, so scared and panicked she couldn’t even speak right at first. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” She finally took a deep breath. “My magic misfired, don’t be angry.”

Still calm, the initial surprised was more amazement than anything else, Star spoke up. “Ah, you’re doing time magic. Be careful, Father Time might get angry.” Still checking herself, Star pulled the back of her dress to look at her back. “You changed me after I hit mewberty. At least one upside.”

“Don’t worry, Nebula. As long as you can revert this.” Marco felt so weird in his teenage body but still found the chance to be a dad.

Jumping at the chance. “Yes! I can, I just need to.” Nebula prepared her staff once more. Only for the thing to power down as she tried to gather energy. “What?! No, I thought we were past this!” She gave the staff a few flicks, growing more panicked as nothing was happening.

Quickly coming up with an explanation. “When was the last time you charged your staff?” First thing Star could think that might be happening.

“Ummmmm… A while ago?” Her parents gave her a stern look, a light one. “Let’s go get the charger.” Doing just that, Nebula took her parents upstairs to charge the staff.

That was quickly done, leaving Star and Marco to wander around Nebula’s room as the staff charged. “I have never seen your room, now that I think about it.” Calls from the mirror not counting.

Marco was quick to add. “Looks messy, but hey, your mom’s room was always messy.”

Star countered with. “C’mon, I always kept my room clean.”

“No, I always kept our room clean.” That comment made them chuckle a little, it was all in good fun.

Walking around the room some more, Star directed herself to the closet. “Hey, is this your closet of secrets?” She opened it up, took a look inside, and closed it up again. “No, just normal closet.” Not too happy about her parents rambling around her stuff, Nebula tried to say something, only to be stopped by a comment from her dad.

“Aw, you still have your stuffed bears.” Marco picked one of the stuffed animals. It was the one his parents bought for Nebula many years ago. Just the sight of it resting on top of that desk made him smile.

This caught Star’s attention. “She even has the panda we got that time at the zoo. Isn’t it cute?”

That being one of her favorites, Nebula was quick to yank it away from her mother’s hands. “Yes, bears are cute, we can all agree to that. But maybe it’s better if we just wait for the staff to be charged, in silence.” She proceeded to sit by the charger, just waiting for the thing to be ready.

With Star and Marco not able to do much, Star leaned closer to Marco and whispered something into his ear. Followed by some quick chuckled from him. Then, Marco whispered something into Star’s ear, which made the Queen laugh while pondering something.

Once she was done with the thinking, Star proclaimed. “Hey, Nebula, the staff is going to take a while, maybe we should wait at the castle.”

More than happy to comply. “Alright, I’ll swing by as soon as this is ready.”

Marco was still smiling when she said. “You go do that. Listen, we are fine, don’t go panicking about this.”

Star decided to add. “Yes, sweetie, my spells misfired all the time when I was your age. Come see us when you’re ready.” She felt it was better they go back instead of waiting there and worry Nebula with their current condition.

Nebula was finally able to breathe some air of relief. “Thank you. It won’t take long, I promise.”

The two of them turned around and were about to get out of the room before Star stopped. “Wait! I still need to do something.” She jumped back, giving Nebula a big hug. This took the girl by surprise and found herself unable to return the hug. “Good luck!” With that said, Star and Marco made their way back to the castle, finally leaving her daughter to charge her staff so she could reverse the spell.

Some hours passed, with the afternoon almost over. “It’s done!” Nebula raised her staff to the sky, fully charged and ready to fix some mistakes. “Mimi, Aron! We are going to the castle now!” The teenagers used Aron’s scissors to arrive directly inside the throne room, finding it empty. “Mom, dad! Where are you!?” The group ran around the hallways trying to find the pair, only to come up empty after some minutes.

After they had circle back to the throne room, one of the servants arrived with a note for the Princess. Nebula was puzzled at this and read the note out loud for her friends. “Sweetie, we went to the Dark Swamps. Will come back maybe tomorrow, take care. And is signed by my parents.”

All three of the teenagers found themselves confused at this turn of events. “What even are the Dark Swamps?” Mimi asked.

Aron was the one that answered. “It’s a dimension with a ton of delinquency, that’s all I know.”

Nebula facepalmed and let out a small grunt. “What are they even thinking?! They shouldn’t be out like that. Let’s go, we can still find them if we hurry.”

Doing just that, the group arrived near a wooden village in the middle of a swamp. It was night time here, with the only lights around the place being lanterns and small fireflies. The wooden houses stood on top of several pillars to separate them from the water beneath them and the teenagers could see small docks around the streets with some row boats resting beside them.

This being an unknown dimension, the group needed to get some directions and ask if anyone had seen Nebula’s parents walking around. This looked like a town consisting of amphibians, with their slimy skin unsettling the teenagers at first.

They began knocking doors and talking to people walking around, only to be met by angry scowls and glares, maybe some grunts as the adults paid no attention to them. And it was only the adults that did so, little kids would only shuffle past them without making eye contact.

After some frustrating minutes of just this, the teenagers decided to stop by a convenience store to grab something to drink. They were quick to gather their snacks and go to the counter to pay up, noticing the old man behind the counter with his arms crossed without saying anything. “Um, we are ready to pay.” Nebula spoke up.

The frogman finally spoke to them. “And tell me, can you pay for them?”

Mimi couldn’t contain her words. “Well, duh, why else would we be here?”

The frogman rolled his eyes at them before saying. “I don’t serve teenagers. Besides, isn’t it past your bedtime?”

“That’s a stupid rule. Just let us pay for our stuff.” Mimi reached out money in hand.

Still adamant. “No. Now, get out of here before you break something.”

“Hey, we are not kids!” A teenager their age yelled as he was walking into the store. The guy was wearing a weird leather outfit, looking more like e belonged to a motorcycle gang, and looked closer to a salamander, with black and yellow stripes all around his body, than a frog like the cashier. “What about the hate towards us anyway? You’re always giving us trouble.”

Quick with his answer. “So you’re with that little gang? More of a reason I’m not serving you.”

Tired of this, Aron tried to intervene. “Listen, we are not even from this dimension, just take our money and we’ll leave you alone.”

While the whole store descended into an argument, Nebula noticed something noises coming from the back of the store, in between the aisles. They were light enough to be dismissed, especially in the middle of the argument in front, but the Princess decided to go investigate. To her surprise, she found another two teenagers trying to sneak a box of soft drinks through the back window, along with some more snacks to accompany them. They had their faces covered with rags and dressed in the same fashion as the guy that came to defend them before.

“Hey, what are you doing back there?!” The cashier peaked around Nebula and saw the would-be thieves. “Stop right there!”

That scream scared all of them inside the store. The salamander boy grabbed Mimi and Aron by their hands and began dragging them away, Nebula had to follow right behind them at top speed, and the teenagers dropping some of their loot as they escaped through the window. The whole group ran out of the area and in between alleyways to lose the cashier pursuing them.

Once they finally lost the guy, all the teenagers stopped to catch their breath. “Thank you, guys… you really helped us out there.” The salamander guy spoke up, and Nebula received more thanks from his friends.

Smiling at the thrill, Mimi welcomed them. “No problem serves the guy right. Who are you guys anyway?”

The new guys turned around, showing their back patch, it looked like a pair of glowing yellow eyes surrounded by vines. “We are the Creatures From the Deep. A ton of teenagers here are part of a gang, but ours if the best of all.”

Maybe they knew the area better than anyone, at least, Nebula thought. “Cool, but listen. We are looking for two teenagers, a boy, and a girl. One with brown hair and a mole under his right eye, the other has blond hair and heart marks on her cheeks.”

It was easy for the salamander boy to place them. “Oh, yeah, the new guys. They should be at our base. Come, we are also having a party.”

Without missing a beat, the gang took them to their small base. The place was an abandoned junkyard in the middle of the swamp. Some pieces of scrap metal rested around a makeshift fire pit in the middle of the place and a dock with several motor boats and jet skis parked. The rest of the gang was either partying around the fire or having mechanic talk near the boats...

“Hey, guys, be brought the snacks and drinks!” And everybody gave them a cheerful welcomed while passing around their loot. Now talking to Nebula and her friends. “Sit around, have a drink, those guys should be coming back in a while.”

Shrugging, the group separated, Mimi went to look for something to eat and Aron moved to the boats. Pretty much left alone, Nebula decided to grab a pop and wander around the party, not really talking to anyone.

Almost everyone there was her same age, with the oldest one being just a couple of years older. The whole place looked like the perfect spot for delinquents and bad boys. Everyone was enjoying themselves, throwing random stuff on the fire, eating whatever garbage food they could get their hands on, and set up some music for the night. All in all, not a place the Princess enjoyed that much, too loud and crowded for her. But her friends looked like they were having a good time, and she still needed to find her parents.

Just when she was growing annoyed with the place, a couple of jet skis arrived at the docks. It was a bunch of kids carrying fish and meat, receiving a round of cheers as they arrived. Nebula was quick to notice her parents as part of this group and went to meet them.

Star and Marco had changed their attire, as it seemed. With both of them adopting the gang’s leather clothing and looks. No patches like the other though, maybe they weren’t part of the gang yet. Both of them arrived on tip of their own jet ski and with a huge smile on their faces.

“Mom!” Nebula called out for Star.

Surprised at seeing her there. “Nebula! Good to see you got our letter.” She left the rest of the kids to unload the rest of the food. “You didn’t need to come here, we are just having a good time.”

The girls caught Marco’s attention as he was struggling to take the alligator they hunted out of the boats. “Oh, hi, sweetie. Sorry, we bailed on you…” Something crossed his mind as he said that. “Wait, if you’re here, it means Mimi is here too.” Guess he finally had someone to help with the task.

With Marco going to look for the girl. “Well, I’m here now. Let’s go back so I can change you back.”

But Star was against the idea. “Yeah, but, we just brought the food. Stay with us for a while, I’m sure we can have fun.” And she threw a big smile towards Nebula.

“No, Mom, I don’t know what kind of side effects might…”

Star was quick to cut her there. “It’s alright, trust me. Go help your dad over at the grill and I’ll get us something to drink.” She went on her way, leaving a dumbfounded Nebula behind.

Walking towards her dad, maybe he was more open to reason, Nebula found him skewering some of the animals they caught. “Hey, dad, ready to go back to your real body?”

Not looking at the Princess, still busy with all the preparations. “You spoke with your mom I figured.” He stopped what he was doing to talk with her. “Think about this as a small holiday. It’ll be wonderful if we can spend it together as a family.”

Still not buying it. “You can’t be serious about this! What about the Kingdom?”

But Marco brushed that off. “The Kingdom is going to be fine for the weekend.” He could see Nebula’s stern glare and he tried something else. “We will go after the party is over, it serves that we get a chance to eat.” Off he went to prepare the food.

That’s when Nebula spotted Mimi working with the food. “You seemed happy. Don’t think you’re up for bringing my parents back home.”

Mimi gave it a quick thought. “I want a bite out of that alligator though.” Which seemed to anger her friend a bit. “But if you really want to…”

But Nebula wasn’t about to be the party pooper. “It’s fine, what’s a few more hours of this anyway.”

“Your parents don’t seem to mind. Maybe staying like that is not that big of a deal for them.” The girls saw Star clinging to Marco’s shoulder, both of them acting like teenagers in love. “Listen, as soon as I finish skewering these fish, I’ll be with you. Let’s spend a good time together.” She knew how bad Nebula was at parties and was already used to keep the girl company to ease up the tension.

With that said, Nebula made another round to the whole party. Ending by the dock where some of the guests were busy with the vehicles. There she found Aron taking a look at some motors. “Hey, good to see you’re having a great time.”

Aron excused himself to the mechanics and answered. “Yeah, there’s not a lot of people back home who I can talk about this stuff.” Had he known they’ll find something like this, he’ll have brought his good arm to show off. “What are you so down?”

Nebula looked down. “Mom and dad don’t want to go back just yet.”

Puzzled at her reasoning. “And… There’s something wrong with that?”

The Princess ran her fingers through her hair. “I guess not, I mean, everybody is having a good time.”

“Except you?” The girl said nothing. “We are kind of the same there. If it weren’t for these guys, I’ll be feeling just like you.”

“Maybe I just need to loosen up a bit.” She gave out a short, awkward laugh. “Whatever, I’ll be around.” She went back to the party, deciding to grab a drink and wait things out.

Some time passed, the food was ready for everyone to dig in, but Nebula still felt uncomfortable there. It was thanks to her own social anxiety, no way around it, even with Mimi clinging to her. It was pretty much Mimi talking with people while Nebula was there saying nothing, mainly just looking around and waiting for the time to go back home. Once she was full, and she didn’t want any more sugary drinks, she opted to go ask Aron for the scissors so she could go back home. Her parents could some to her after everything was done.

Only for Star to sit beside her before she could get up. As a greeting, Star poke Nebula on the forehead. “Don’t frown so hard.” She laughed, but Nebula didn’t find that funny. “I know when you’re done with parties. You start frowning so bad you look angry, you’ve had it since you were a baby.”

Rubbing her forehead. “You won’t be seeing it much longer, I’m going home.”

She was about to stand up, but her mother stopped her. “No, don’t do that. I’ll keep you company.” Nebula let out a small sigh and looked away. “What’s bothering you? I know it’s not just social interaction.”

Like she didn’t know the answer already. “I’m just trying to figure out why you aren’t concerned about what happened. You weren’t even angry.”

“What can I say? This is not a ‘get angry’ situation. It didn’t take us long to figure out we could use this to take a break from things.” She heard Nebula grumbling a little. “Please understand, things have been harder since you…” But she stopped before saying that.

Too bad Nebula was quick to pick it up. “Just say it. You’ve been worrying to death ever since I moved out.” Nebula knew that was going to happen, with how much she knew her parents, and still decided to move out. Not like she didn’t feel guilty about leaving her parents feeling like that, it pained her to know how hard this must be for them. “I’m sorry about it, I really am…” And saying that out loud sounded so bad for her. It made her realize she was just being a child about this whole thing. So what if her parents just wanted some free time? Sulking about it felt like she was making them feel guilty about not wanting to go back. “I get why you’ll want some free time to clear your head. Just… you can do it without me, is all I’m saying.” She still felt out of place in the party and was already ruining the mood with her frowning.

“But where’s the fun in that, silly?” Star said, with a smile on her face and grabbing Nebula’s hands. “We are here as a family, there must be something we can do together.” Nebula was just about to say something against it, and Star caught it just in time. “Listen. Yes, we are worried about you, but that doesn’t matter right now. I want you to have fun too!” Again, Nebula didn’t look convince and about to say something to shot those plans down. “Besides, of all the responsibilities I’m ditching just to be here, you’re not one of them.” That finally went through the Princess’ head. “I’ll always be your mom, therefore, I want to see you happy.”

Both of them smiled while locking eyes. Finally, it was Nebula that broke the silence. “Alright, I’ll stay. I’ll even have a good time.” And she meant it.

“Great!” Star and Nebula got up. “Oh, and I think I know what we are doing to have fun.” She signaled to the dock with the jet skis, were Marco and Aron were standing. “Let’s take a ride around the swamp on those. Believe me, it’s amazing.” And Nebula was dragged by the arm by her mother, fully focused on having a good time. With the help of Marco, Nebula got some quick lessons on how to handle one of the motor boats and the three of them could do some laps around the area. Simple, but fun.

That same night, all of them went back to the castle. The pair was easy to turn back to normal, this time there was no distraction to mess Nebula up. Even if this was so late at night, it still pained the parents to see their daughter go back to her own home. And, thanks to the party taking a lot of energy out of the adults, they also took the next day lightly, not really doing much until night.

But it was that next night when Marco asked Star about her mood. “Hey, how are you feeling?” He noticed this during the day. The Queen looked sadden for some reason like she was in pain and silently suffering. Barely even made any talk with him, so weird for Star. “You still wanted to spend some time as a teenager?”

Star was brushing her hair before bead, paying more attention to her reflection than Marco at the moment. “Not really.” She said nothing more.

Marco decided to approach her, placing both hands on her shoulders. “Then tell me, what’s wrong?” Without saying anything, Star got up from her seat and walked towards her bed, deciding to lay down for the day. Marco sat on the bed and tried to press for a real answer. “Is it about Nebula?” But Star remained unresponsive, laying on her side and giving Marco her back. Marco crawled to his wife, hugging her close and giving her a small kiss on the cheek. “You know you can tell me everything, right?”

And Star remained silent. Trying to ignore her troubles by closing her eyes, maybe she could get some sleep. Nonetheless, Marco didn’t let go. He snuggled closer to Star and got comfortable. He figured Star will say what’s wrong when she is feeling like it.

It was then that Star decided to answer. “I want another baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going to go at it like this in the future. Two small stories per chapter.


End file.
